Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
LAYTON — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said that he knows there are a lot of challenges facing the Beehive State, and more broadly the nation, during his keynote address Tuesday at the One Utah Summit.
This message, with some added reasons for optimism, is one that Cox has given to students across the state recently during his ongoing Connecting Utah Tour.
"My point to the young people is that, yes, there are things to worry about in their lives. But we are not helpless. We have the ability to solve those problems," Cox said.
He even took it one step further, proclaiming, "There's never been a better time to be alive than right now, and ... there's never been a better place to live than right here in Utah."
Still, he acknowledged that there is significant room for improvement, starting with curbing social media and cellphone use, or "the bad things right in front of us all the time."
Cox talked about previous generations that were raised without easy, seemingly 24/7 exposure and access to social media and how healthy child development is dependent on unsupervised play — something he said he's seeing less and less of.
In March, Cox signed the nation's first major social media regulations into law when he put ink to paper on SB152 and HB311.
The bills have been touted by lawmakers as necessary to counter the alleged harms social media platforms perpetuate on teenagers, while simultaneously drawing strong pushback from industry groups. They have also raised concerns about freedom of speech and privacy.
While Cox said he wants people to understand that "we are not helpless" in solving the challenges facing the state and nation, he was markedly less optimistic about the federal government and its role in solving problems.
"We are a little bit helpless when it comes to getting help from our nation to solve those problems," Cox said.
Gov. Spencer Cox spoke at #1UTspring about the economic climate in Utah and why there is no better place to live and work pic.twitter.com/gjVYlJIpe9
— One Utah Summit (@OneUtahSummit) May 2, 2023
To bolster his point, Cox talked about the federal government recently approving the TransWest Express Transmission Project — a $3 billion transmission line that will carry electricity from the country's largest onshore wind farm in Wyoming and move more low-carbon energy into California — crossing through Utah.
"That's good news," Cox said. "The bad news is that we started that application process in 2008. I can assure you that in 2009 when I was sitting in a small basement room in Sanpete County as a county commissioner, I did not expect to be governor of the great state of Utah when that got approved. That's how broken things are at our national level."
Despite this, Cox again emphasized that Utahns are not helpless to solve in-state problems themselves — namely, those related to the ongoing drought, water and housing.
"A previous governor said that in Utah, we're either in drought or preparing for the next drought. And so they built reservoirs, very wisely, and they built water distribution systems because they were not helpless. They understood that they could work together to solve these problems," Cox said.
He pointed to Utahns collectively saving 20 billion gallons of water as a recent example of problem-solving that's happening in the state.
As far as housing, Cox said the state is not where it wants to be but that it's a "simple supply and demand issue" that he believes is in the state's control to solve.
"We can do it in smart ways. We can do it in the right places. ... Several bills have passed this legislative session that will help us to do that," Cox said. "We will work together, and we will figure this out and we will get this done."
Utah is THE best state in the nation, according to @usnews 2023 #BestStates ranking.
— Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox (@GovCox) May 2, 2023
Our state is #1 overall and has the best economy, employment and fiscal stability in the country among other categories. Read Utah's full ranking breakdown at https://t.co/0ZPHSp4fhI. #LetsGopic.twitter.com/u6AtHYV6t2
He referenced the latest edition of the U.S. News and World Report released Tuesday, which ranks Utah as the best state in the country.
"This is the definitive ranking of all 50 U.S. states, and they chose Utah," Cox said. "We don't always get it right. Sometimes there are controversial things — we aren't able to find compromise, and we end up doing things like the rest of the country does — but more often than not, we are on the other side."
"There is an opportunity for us to come together, and I believe that Utah can show the rest of the world that there is a better way."
