EPA is giving states three more years to turn in new plans for improving visibility in some of the nation’s best-known hiking and recreational areas, overriding objections from conservation groups
States will now have until July 2031 to submit the blueprints instead of July 2028, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in giving the final stamp of approval to the proposal issued more than a year ago during former President Joe Biden’s term.
If Zeldin’s decision marks a rare point of agreement with the Biden administration, it cites a different rationale for the delay: EPA’s initiative under President Donald Trump to broadly restructure the regional haze program, which aims to cut pollution from power plants, oil drillers and other industries that clouds vistas in Yosemite National Park, the Sipsey Wilderness and other prized federal lands.
EPA has already gathered feedback on potential changes. “It is impracticable to ask states, industry, and other stakeholders to begin work” on regional haze plans in light of the uncertainty surrounding future regulatory requirements, agency staff wrote in the postponement decision, which is set for official publication in Tuesday’s Federal Register.
