Environmental Groups: Trump EPA Weakening Clean Air Rules for National Parks

Environmental advocates claim the Trump administration's EPA is reversing pollution control measures that have improved air quality at national parks over the past 25 years. The agency has approved weaker state plans and rejected stricter proposals, potentially allowing haze to return to protected wilderness areas.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Environmental advocates are raising concerns that the Trump administration is dismantling air quality protections that have dramatically improved visibility at national parks and wilderness areas across the country.

The controversy centers around a dramatic policy shift involving West Virginia’s pollution control strategy. Twelve months ago, federal environmental officials rejected the state’s proposal to reduce sulfur emissions and smog over protected wilderness areas, citing inadequate analysis by a dozen coal-fired facilities regarding upgraded pollution controls.

However, six months after President Trump’s administration took control of the Environmental Protection Agency, those same officials approved the identical proposal. The agency now says technology assessments aren’t required if visibility improvements meet projected targets.

Environmental groups point to this reversal as evidence of a broader effort by the Trump EPA to weaken pollution restrictions that have successfully cleaned the air above treasured national parks and wilderness areas for more than two decades.

The federal regional haze regulation mandates that states develop comprehensive plans every decade to reduce emissions and track air pollution across more than 150 protected areas, including national parks, wilderness zones, wildlife refuges and tribal lands spanning 36 states.

Since implementation began in 1999, over 90% of protected parks and wilderness areas have experienced significant reductions in sulfur and smog emissions, with decreases totaling hundreds of thousands of tons each year. Visual range improvements have been substantial, with some Western parks seeing average visibility increase from 90 miles to 120 miles, according to Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program.

However, energy industry representatives contend these regulations have accomplished their intended purpose and now impose excessive financial burdens. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in March 2025 the agency’s intention to review and potentially eliminate 31 major environmental regulations, including the regional haze rule, to reduce regulatory constraints on fossil fuel companies.

While the EPA continues collecting public input on modifying the federal regulation, conservation groups argue the agency has already undermined standards by rejecting state proposals deemed too restrictive on polluters while approving weaker plans previously rejected under the Biden administration.

“They’re blessing states that haven’t done a good enough job and they’re dramatically changing course on states like West Virginia, like California, like Hawaii, like Colorado,” said Ulla Reeves, director of the National Parks Conservation Association’s clean air program. “They’re using these reversals and those changes to achieve their agenda of letting polluting facilities stay online.”

EPA spokesperson Brigit Hirsch responded in a statement that the agency remains committed to legal compliance and cannot approve state proposals that violate federal law.

The day following Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, the EPA indicated it would reject West Virginia’s submission. Agency officials noted that state authorities chose not to require eight coal-burning facilities to evaluate whether additional pollution-reduction technology was necessary to maintain progress toward natural visibility standards at multiple East Coast national parks and wilderness areas.

While the state requested evaluations from five facilities, only one complied. One plant cited existing federal emission restrictions, while others claimed they were already meeting visibility standards.

Six months later, the EPA reversed its position and approved the plan, implementing a new policy stating that state proposals are acceptable if visibility improvements surpass projections at affected national parks and wilderness areas. West Virginia had demonstrated such improvements.

The National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and environmental law firm Earthjustice have filed a lawsuit against the EPA, claiming the new policy enabled West Virginia to avoid implementing pollution reductions and threatens air quality at national parks including Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, and Mammoth Cave, already among the nation’s haziest parks.

Environmental advocates warn the new policy creates broad implications. While visibility levels might achieve benchmarks due to plant closures or fuel switching, relying exclusively on those measurements allows still-polluting facilities to avoid taking action, explained Joshua Smith, a Sierra Club attorney.

The Biden-era EPA had planned to reject California’s proposal as early as 2024 because state officials failed to consider pollutants beyond smog and didn’t justify their decision not to evaluate pollution levels at numerous refineries and airports. The Trump EPA approved the plan last summer partly because visibility was meeting benchmarks.

“We view this (new policy) as a backdoor way to kick the can down the road,” Smith said.

Both the EPA and West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection declined to comment on pending litigation.

This January, Trump’s EPA rejected Colorado’s plan primarily because it would have forced closure of a coal-burning facility near Pueblo without Colorado Springs Utilities’ consent, according to EPA documents. The agency highlighted the utility’s concerns about closure impacts on state electricity supply and potential legal issues with forced closure. Colorado has challenged the rejection in federal court in Denver.

“EPA’s action is not based on a failure to meet regional haze requirements or visibility protections, which Colorado continues to meet,” Michael Ogletree, senior director of state air quality programs, told The Associated Press.

Hawaii’s proposal includes closing six boilers at two power facilities on Hawaii and Maui islands, plus potentially shutting down several diesel generators on Maui. While the EPA hasn’t reached a final decision, it signaled in February its intention to reject those closures, citing similar concerns to Colorado about demonstrating legal authority for shutdowns.

The EPA has also cautioned that the Trump administration won’t support states pursuing plant closures to meet regional haze requirements and that states must consider how plant closure or pollution reduction technology affects electrical grid reliability.

“Coal-fired power plants are essential sources of baseload power necessary for addressing surging energy demand, increases in American manufacturing, national security interests, and turning the United States into the Artificial Intelligence capital of the world,” the agency stated in rejecting Colorado’s plan. “Ensuring affordable and reliable energy supplies is a top priority of the Trump administration.”

Neither the U.S. Energy Association, a consortium of utilities, engineers and government agencies promoting domestic energy access, nor the American Coal Council, which supports the coal industry, responded to requests for comment.

Jim Schaberl, former air and water quality manager at Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, located less than 100 miles from West Virginia, witnessed firsthand the transformation in air quality.

When he began working at the park in 2008, a sooty, yellowish-brown haze from West Virginia coal facilities frequently blanketed the park. Today, he noted, visibility has improved so dramatically that hikers can distinguish the Washington Monument 75 miles eastward. Trump’s policies threaten to reverse all those gains, he warned.

“To try to resurrect coal is like digging up a grave, and this administration wants to dig up that grave,” Schaberl said. “It’s nonsensical and, I think, lawless.”