FARMINGTON — Davis County commissioners, and others from the West, need to balance “some pretty liberal representation from some of the Eastern states.”

Commissioner John Petroff was speaking of the National Association of Counties (NACO) conference held in Nashville, Tenn., attended by all three Davis County commissioners.

“If we don’t have people who speak for the West, then they (NACO) pass a lot of those (liberal) resolutions that are then taken by their national lobby, and then say we’re (all NACO members) in favor of this or that,” he said.

Petroff, who has been in office since January, now sits on environmental and energy and land use working committees for the organization, which represents more than 3,000 counties nationwide.

“We want responsible environmental policies,” he said, “and are not just believing everything that spouts out of Washington, D.C.”

On cap and trade, a “hot topic” right now, Petroff didn’t mince words. “I am so much against it. Every time I have an opportunity to speak against it I do.

“All cap and trade will do is worsen the worldwide environment. It will drive (U.S.) jobs offshore. The manufacturing processes offshore are (often) not as environmentally sound as we have in the U.S.,” Petroff said.

“I think we as counties and businesses ought to work together to make our manufacturing and other processes as clean as possible,” he said.

Former President George W. Bush didn’t sign the Kyoto agreement that aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the presence of greenhouse gases because he was against some of its policies, Petroff said.

“It was because he wasn’t in favor that China and India, and 30-40 percent of all other countries weren’t even in the Kyoto protocol. They were held harmless,” he said. “You saw what happened with the 2008 Summer Olympics. Beijing is the most polluted city in the world.”

Signing the agreement under current conditions will mean the loss of U.S. jobs, he continued.

At NACO, there were 81 pages of resolutions dealing just with greenhouse gasses and related issues, Petroff said.

“There was a resolution proposed that would support federal incentives to encourage agriculture to reduce greenhouse gasses. We are opposed to a livestock tax. That’s a big deal out here,” he continued.

“Definitely, there is a liberal viewpoint or leaning,” County Commission Chair Bret Millburn said. “Everybody is drinking the (liberal) punch.

“We got a lot of those speakers, and they were laying out, giving direction on what the current administration is thinking. It has a liberal slant to it.

“I think it’s important to be there and raise a voice to show there is another opinion, another viewpoint,” he said.

With an eye to giving more voice to different parts of the country, Millburn said NACO is creating regions, including the West, with a set of officers representing those areas.

NACO holds a summer conference where part of its role is to pass resolutions that apply to legislation that can be further dealt with at the late winter meeting, conducted in the nation’s capital when Congress is back in session.

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com