Governor calls for action on cleaning up Utah air

Gov. Gary Herbert called for steps to clear Utah’s air, using his State of the State address to push for quicker adoption of clean-burning gasoline, clamping down on the use of wood-burning stoves and retrofitting aging, dirty school buses.

“These actions, and others, will have real costs and real impacts on all of us, but I’m convinced the benefits to our economy, to our communities and, most importantly, to our public health, will justify the costs,” Herbert said.

During his nearly 30-minute speech, Herbert also reiterated his plan to at least partially expand Medicaid to cover at least 60,000 Utahns without health insurance under Obamacare, to defend Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage, and appeared to respond to criticism earlier in the week from House Speaker Becky Lockhart that Herbert was failing to lead.