Madison, Wisconsin.. A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that their plan to remove sulfur and smog from the skies over the state’s national wilderness areas wasn’t good enough because dozens of coal plants had not analyzed whether they needed better pollution controls.
Six months later, EPA, now Under the control of President Donald Trumpblessed the same plan, saying that technology evaluations would not be necessary as long as the vision reached expected standards.
Conservationists say West Virginia’s shift is just one example of the Trump administration paving the way for states to roll back pollution restrictions that have helped clear the air above beloved national parks and wilderness areas over the past 25 years.
Federal regulation known as Regional fog rule It requires states to develop plans every 10 years to reduce emissions and monitor air pollution in more than 150 national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges and tribal reservations across 36 states.
Since the rule went into effect in 1999, more than 90% of parks and wilderness areas have seen sulfur and smog emissions reduced by hundreds of thousands of tons annually. Average visual range has increased from 90 miles to 120 miles (145 kilometers to 195 kilometers) in some Western parks, according to Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program.
But energy producers say the regulations have done their job and are too expensive. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March 2025 that the agency would look to roll back 31 landmark environmental regulations, including the regional haze rule, in order to… Reducing regulatory pressures On the fossil fuel industry.
The EPA is still receiving public comment on how to relax the federal rule. Meanwhile, conservationists say, the agency has weakened standards for individual state plans by rejecting state proposals the agency considers too tough on polluters and signing off on weak plans that the Biden administration has rejected.
“They’re blessing states that haven’t done a good enough job, and they’re dramatically changing the course in states like West Virginia, like California, like Hawaii, like Colorado,” said Ola Reeves, director of the National Park Conservation Association’s Clean Air Program. “They are using those reversals and those changes to further their agenda of allowing the tainted facilities to stay online.”
EPA spokeswoman Brigitte Hirsch said in a statement that the agency is committed to following the law and cannot approve state plans that do not follow the law.
The EPA indicated the day after Trump took office in January 2025 that it would do so West Virginia’s proposal rejected. The agency noted that state officials decided not to require eight coal-burning power plants to evaluate whether they need more pollution-reduction technology to continue making progress toward normal visibility levels in several national parks and wilderness areas on the East Coast.
The state required five factories to conduct an assessment, but only one complied. One plant argued that it was already subject to federal emissions restrictions. Others said they were meeting the criteria for visibility.
The EPA changed course six months later And he agreed The plan, adopts a new policy that state plans are good enough if the state can demonstrate visibility improvements beyond expectations in national parks and wilderness areas affected by pollution. West Virginia has done just that.
The National Parks Conservation Association, the Sierra Club and environmental law firm Earthjustice are suing the EPA, arguing that the new policy allowed West Virginia to avoid enforcing pollution reductions and threatens air quality in national parks, including Shenandoah, the Great Smoky Mountains and Mammoth Cave, already one of the country’s foggiest parks.
Environmentalists warn that the new policy has far-reaching implications. Sierra Club attorney Joshua Smith said visibility levels may reach standards thanks to plant shutdowns or fuel switches, but relying solely on those measurements allows plants that are still causing pollution to get away with doing nothing.
For example, as early as 2024, the EPA under Biden said it planned to reject California’s plan because state officials did not consider pollutants other than smog and did not explain why they did not evaluate pollution levels at a number of refineries and airports. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency approved it last summer in part because the vision met standards.
“We look at this (new policy) as a backdoor way to get the can out of the way,” Smith said.
Both the EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said they do not comment on pending litigation.
Trump EPA Colorado plan rejected That’s largely because last January it was going to shut down a coal-burning power plant near Pueblo without owner Colorado Springs Utilities’ approval, according to EPA documents. The agency cited Colorado Springs’ concerns about the effects of the shutdown on the state’s electricity supply and that enforcing the shutdown may be illegal. The state appealed the denial in federal court in Denver.
“EPA’s action is not based on a failure to meet regional haze or vision protection requirements, which Colorado continues to meet,” Michael Ogletree, the state’s senior director of air quality programs, told The Associated Press.
Hawaii’s plan calls for shutting down six boilers at two power plants on the islands of Hawaii and Maui, in addition to the option to shut down several diesel generators on Maui. The EPA has not made a final decision, but indicated in February that it planned to reject such closures, saying that, as in Colorado, the state had not shown that the closures would be legal.
The EPA also warned that the Trump administration will not support states pushing for plant closures to comply with regional haze requirements, and that states must consider the impact of plant closures or pollution abatement technology on grid reliability.
“Coal-fired power plants are essential sources of essential energy needed to meet growing energy demand, increases in American manufacturing, national security interests, and the transformation of the United States into the artificial intelligence capital of the world.” He said dismissively Colorado Plan. “Ensuring affordable and reliable energy supplies is a top priority for the Trump administration.”
Neither the American Energy Association, a group of utilities, engineers and government agencies that works to expand access to local energy sources, nor the American Coal Council, a group that supports the coal industry, responded to messages seeking comment.
Jim Shaperl is a former director of air and water quality at Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Virginia, less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the West Virginia line.
When he started working at the park in 2008, he said, there was often a yellowish-brown haze from coal plants in West Virginia hovering over the park. He said visibility has now improved so much that hikers are able to see the Washington Monument 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the east. He added that Trump is threatening to undo all of this.
“Trying to revive coal is like digging a grave, and this administration wants to dig that grave,” Schaperl said. “It’s illogical, and I think it’s illegal.”