Water levels in Utah are as high as they have been in the last 13 years, KSL reported. According to the Utah Division of Water Resources, the statewide water system is up to 92% capacity after falling to 42% capacity in 2022.

The reason for the resurgence is back-to-back winters of well-above-average snowfall. As the last of that snow has now melted and flowed down into the reservoirs, it seems that the state has fully recovered — for now, at least — from the multiyear drought that saw its water resources depleted.

Other western states — including California, Texas, and others — have experienced similar cycles of intense drought followed by years of above-average precipitation.

Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, sought to credit the high water levels to individual citizens conserving water and to deflect away from the actual environmental issues that have been causing these changes.

“Keep conserving,” Cox said. “It’s actually working. I know we’ve had a good water year, but we’re well ahead of where we would have been because people conserved last year in what was a record water year.”

However, in reality, the water levels in Utah’s reservoir have much more to do with the drought cycles that have become increasingly severe as a result of changing weather patterns caused by the overheating of our planet — largely a consequence of our society’s reliance on pollution-causing sources of dirty energy such as gas and oil.

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Gov. Cox has sought to downplay and deny these consequences, though. In 2022, Cox supported new oil and gas drilling leases for federal public lands in his state. This year, his administration sued the federal government in an attempt to rescind environmental regulation.

That is not, of course, to say that you should ignore the government when it says to conserve water. If you are in an area experiencing drought (and even if you aren’t), it is very important to not use more water than you need — especially if your elected officials are committed to ignoring the consequences of dirty energy and to advancing policies that create more planet-overheating air pollution.

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