Utah is pushing back against ever-tightening EPA air pollution standards

Salt Lake City sits in a bowl of a mountain valley where dirty air can get trapped for days during winter inversions.

At least a million people have moved to the valley since 2000 , and the air on some days looks dirtier than Mexico City's .

The Biden administration unveiled new, stricter standards for air pollution that haven't been updated in more than a decade as part of a national push to crack down on cities with chronically bad air.

Utah recently lost a legal battle with the Biden administration over a rule regulating pollution from coal plants that blows into other states, in this case over neighboring Colorado .

Gov. Spencer Cox says in Utah , it's possible to balance a healthy environment and economy.

His own environmental agency warned in a report late last year that climate change and toxic dust off the drying Great Salt Lake could reverse recent air pollution gains.