Utah should have a long-term energy plan, so we welcome Gov. Gary Herbert's announcement that he will assemble a panel of experts to create one. We agree with the governor that Utah is blessed with diverse energy resources, from fossil fuels to renewables, that should be weighed in any strategic plan. We only wish that he had mentioned climate change when he sketched his idea Tuesday night as part of his State of the State address.

The governor proposes a 10-year-strategic plan he calls the Utah Energy Initiative. He says he will assemble "the best minds in the state" to create a plan with three purposes: to ensure Utah's continued access to our own clean and low-cost energy resources; to be on the cutting edge of new technologies; to create economic opportunity and jobs.

We don't want to quibble too much, because we applaud Herbert for bringing a new high-profile policy emphasis to energy planning. We would simply observe that to be truly strategic, the time frame probably needs to be longer than 10 years, especially if the plan is to consider new technologies and a transition from traditional fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. The right renewables will not produce the fine particles that cast a choking pall during Utah's winter inversions and the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

The governor mentioned in the speech that he and other elected officials from around the state will talk to Utahns later this week about our joint responsibility to reduce air pollution. We look forward to those proposals.

When the governor referred, in his announcement of the Utah Energy Initiative, to continued access to low-cost energy resources, we hope that he did not mean sacrificing wilderness-quality lands to fossil fuel production. That said, we recognize that natural gas and oil must continue to play an important role in Utah's energy future. Coal can too, but only if new technologies can solve the problems of particulate pollution and carbon sequestration.

We are encouraged that the governor cited renewable sources to develop in the state's energy portfolio: solar, wind, geothermal, biomass. These must be key to Utah's energy future, though we admit that there are technical problems to overcome with solar and wind power, namely, how to store energy efficiently for those times when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. Also to his credit, the governor did not mention nuclear power as an answer.

Sorting out this complex economic and technical puzzle will not be easy. But Herbert is right to lead the effort.