Welcome to The Senate Site

By Lyle Hillyard
Utah State Senator, District 25

Dr. Ned Weinshenker, who is the Vice President of Strategic Ventures and Economic Development at USU and oversees USU’s USTAR program, brought to my attention the importance of protecting the commercial value of the unique organisms present in Utah on public lands.

Plants and microbes found in some of the harsh conditions in Utah (e.g. Great Salt Lake, deserts, salt flats and oil shale) have unusual properties and have been found useful for production of high value chemicals such as biodiesel and jet fuel. Ned raised a concern that these organisms are so unique and helpful that it would be a great financial loss to Utah if they were developed out of state in competition to our efforts.

His initial thought was that we should enact legislation to have collectors of such organisms register their efforts and if a commercial product results, royalties would be paid back to the State. If they were to develop them in Utah, no royalty would be necessary. Ned has set up a Scientific Advisory Committee to help with drafting the concept. I have accepted his advice and will probably be filing a bill to accomplish this in the upcoming session.

As I become better acquainted with the research going on at USU and the U of U, thanks in large part to our USTAR investment, I like to wonder what people will think in 20 years from now when these cutting edge research initiatives are complete and the processes and products they produce are common place.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Twitter Updates

Follow @UtahSenate on Twitter