MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that a plan to remove sulfur and smog from the air above a state conservation area wasn’t good enough because more than a dozen coal-fired power plants didn’t analyze whether they needed better pollution controls.
Six months later, the Environmental Protection Agency is now under the firm control of President Donald Trumpcongratulated the same plan, saying that as long as visibility hits the predicted benchmarks, no evaluation of the technology is necessary.
Conservationists say West Virginia’s reversal is just one example of how the Trump administration is clearing the way for states to roll back pollution regulations that have helped clean the air in beloved national parks and preserves over the past 25 years.
Rules improve visibility, but says Trump’s EPA is too strict
Federal regulations known as regional haze rules The law requires each state to develop a plan every 10 years to limit emissions and monitor air pollution in more than 150 national parks, preserves, wildlife refuges, and tribal reservations across 36 states.
Since the rule went into effect in 1999, more than 90 percent of parks and preserves have reduced sulfur and smog emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons per year. In some parks in the West, average viewing distances have increased from 90 miles to 120 miles (145 kilometers to 195 kilometers), according to Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program.
But energy producers say regulations are not doing their job and that costs are too high. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March 2025 that the agency would consider rescinding 31 landmark environmental regulations, including regional haze regulations. relieve regulatory pressure About the fossil fuel industry.
EPA pushes back on state plans
The EPA is still soliciting public comment on how to relax the federal rules. Conservationists, meanwhile, argue that the agency is weakening standards for states’ plans by rejecting proposals from states that it believes are too harsh on polluters and approving weak plans that the Biden administration rejected.
“We’re congratulating states that haven’t done enough, and we’re dramatically changing the course of states like West Virginia, California, Hawaii, and Colorado,” said Ulla Reeves, director of the Clean Air Program at the National Park Conservation Association. “They are trying to use these reversals and changes to achieve their goal of keeping contaminated facilities operational.”
EPA spokeswoman Bridget Hirsch said in a statement that the agency is committed to following the law and cannot approve state plans that do not comply with the law.
West Virginia flips and lowers the bar
The EPA announced the following policy the day after Trump took office in January 2025. reject West Virginia’s proposal. The agency noted that state officials have decided not to ask eight coal-fired power plants to assess whether further pollution reduction technologies are needed to continue progress toward naturally visible levels in several East Coast national parks and preserves.
The state requested evaluations from five factories, but only one responded. One factory claimed it was already subject to federal emissions limits. Other companies said they met visibility benchmarks.
EPA reversed course six months later. and was approved The plan adopts a new policy that says a state’s plan is sufficient if it can demonstrate improved prospects beyond expectations in national parks and natural areas affected by pollution. West Virginia did it.
The National Park Conservation Association, the Sierra Club and the environmental law firm Earthjustice are suing the EPA, claiming the new policy allows West Virginia to avoid pollution reduction obligations and threatens air quality in national parks such as Shenandoah, the Great Smoky Mountains and Mammoth Cave, which are already among the haziest in the country.
Environmentalists warn that the new policy will have far-reaching implications. Joshua Smith, an attorney for the Sierra Club, said visibility levels could reach benchmarks thanks to factory closures and fuel switches, but relying solely on those measurements could leave still-polluting factories doing nothing.
For example, the Biden-era EPA said it plans to reject California’s plan as early as 2024 because the state agency doesn’t consider pollutants other than smog and doesn’t explain why it doesn’t evaluate pollution levels at many refineries and airports. The Trump EPA approved it last summer, in part because it met visibility benchmarks.
“We see this (the new policy) as a backdoor way into the future,” Smith said.
Both the EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said they do not comment on pending litigation.
EPA refuses to close plants in Colorado and Hawaii
President Trump’s EPA rejected Colorado’s plan EPA documents say the decision was largely due to the potential closure of a coal-fired power plant near Pueblo in January without the consent of owner Colorado Springs Utilities. The agency said the city of Colorado Springs is concerned about the impact the shutdown would have on the state’s power supply and that forcing the shutdown could be illegal. The state challenged the dismissal in federal court in Denver.
“EPA’s action is not based on failure to meet local haze or visibility protection requirements, which Colorado continues to meet,” Michael Ogletree, senior director of the state’s air quality program, told The Associated Press.
The state’s plan includes shutting down six boilers at two power plants on Hawai’i Island and Maui, as well as an option to shut down several diesel generators on Maui. The EPA has not made a final decision, but in February it indicated plans to reject these closures, saying the state had not shown that the closures were legal, similar to the situation in Colorado.
President Trump’s EPA to states: Focus on energy supply
The EPA also warned that the Trump administration will not support states that pursue power plant closures to meet local haze requirements and that states must consider the impact of power plant closures and pollution reduction technologies on grid reliability.
“Coal-fired power plants are a vital source of the baseload electricity needed to meet rapidly growing energy demand, increased U.S. manufacturing, national security interests, and transform the United States into the world’s artificial intelligence capital,” the agency said. I said while refusing. Colorado State Plan. “Ensuring affordable and reliable energy supplies is a top priority for the Trump Administration.”
Neither the American Energy Association, a consortium of utilities, engineers and government agencies working to expand access to domestic energy sources, nor the American Coal Council, a group that supports the coal industry, responded to messages seeking comment.
Coal support like “digging a grave”
Jim Chavar is a former air and water quality manager for Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, less than 100 miles from the West Virginia line.
He said that when he started working at the park in 2008, a sooty, tan haze from coal-fired power plants in West Virginia often hung over the park. Visibility has now improved dramatically, he said, allowing hikers to see the Washington Monument 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the east. President Trump is threatening to cancel all of this, he said.
“Trying to bring coal back is like digging a grave, and this administration wants to dig that grave back,” Shabell said. “I think that’s nonsense and lawless.”
