type: timeline_event
On March 22, 2026, the EPA adopted a new policy allowing states to avoid requiring technology evaluations at coal-fired power plants under the Regional Haze Rule — rolling back approximately 25 years of progress on reducing visibility-impairing pollution in national parks and wilderness areas. The rule change effectively shielded the coal industry from the pollution control assessments that had been the primary mechanism for clearing haze from some of America's most iconic landscapes.
The policy's application was immediately visible in the EPA's handling of two state implementation plans. West Virginia's plan was approved despite the fact that a dozen coal plants in the state had not analyzed whether available pollution controls could reduce their haze-causing emissions. By contrast, Colorado's plan was rejected specifically because it included projected coal plant closures as part of its haze reduction strategy — a decision that environmental groups called a transparent signal that the EPA would punish states whose plans acknowledged the industry's decline.
The National Parks Conservation Association warned that the policy reversal would halt and potentially reverse decades of air quality improvements at parks including the Grand Canyon, Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Acadia. Visibility in many national parks had improved significantly since the Regional Haze Rule was first implemented in 1999, and conservationists argued that the gains were directly attributable to the technology evaluations that the new policy eliminated.
Earthjustice and the Sierra Club announced plans to challenge the policy in court, arguing that it violated the Clean Air Act's mandate to restore natural visibility conditions in Class I federal areas. Legal experts noted that the Regional Haze Rule had been upheld by multiple federal courts and that the EPA's decision to approve state plans that omitted required analyses represented a clear departure from the statute's requirements. The case highlighted a broader pattern in the administration's environmental agenda: using procedural changes and state plan approvals to effectively nullify federal environmental protections without formally repealing the underlying statutes.