JOSH LOFTIN
Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Gov. Gary Herbert is launching a new initiative to improve air quality in the state's urban areas.
Herbert will provide details of the initiative Tuesday during a news conference at a Salt Lake City natural gas plant. He first announced the effort during last week's State of the State speech.
Herbert says he will include businesses, clean-air activists and government officials in his plan.
Utah has struggled with increasingly polluted air, especially when smog gets trapped in the heavily-populated northern valleys during winter. Federal regulators say the state must adopt preventive measures or face penalties.
Last month, a group of doctors, mothers and other activists filed a lawsuit to prevent the expansion of a copper mine in the Salt Lake valley because of pollution concerns.
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