https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-parks-haze-pollution-rules-epa-9e83f9cd7f6773deedbad355a40da232MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that their plan to clear sulfur and smog from skies over the state’s national wilderness areas wasn’t good enough because a dozen coal plants didn’t analyze whether they needed better pollution controls.Six months later, the Environmental Protection Agency, now firmly under President Donald Trump’s control, blessed the same plan, saying technology evaluations wouldn’t be necessary as long as visibility hit projected benchmarks.Conservationists say the about-face in West Virginia is just one example of the Trump administration clearing the way for states to roll back pollution restrictions that have helped clear the air over beloved national parks and wilderness areas over the last 25 years.A rule has improved visibility, but Trump’s EPA says it’s too toughA federal regulation known as the regional haze rule requires states to come up with plans every 10 years to limit emissions and monitor air pollution in more than 150 national parks, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges and tribal reservations across 36 states.Since the rule took effect in 1999, more than 90% of parks and wilderness areas have seen sulfur and smog emissions decline by hundreds of thousands of tons annually. The average visual range has increased from 90 miles to 120 miles (145 kilometers to 195 kilometers) in some Western parks, according to the Harvard Law School’s Environmental and Energy Law Program.
But energy producers argue the regulations have done their job and are too costly. 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, to relieve regulatory pressure on the fossil fuel industry.EPA pushes back on state plansThe EPA is still taking public comments on how to soften 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 the Biden administration had rejected.“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 said in a statement that the agency is committed to following the law and can’t approve state plans that don’t follow the law.West Virginia about-face lowers the barThe EPA signaled on the day after Trump took office in January 2025 that it would reject West Virginia’s proposal. The agency noted that state officials decided not to ask eight coal-burning power plants to assess whether they needed more pollution-reduction technology to continue making progress toward natural visibility levels at multiple East Coast national parks and wilderness areas.The state asked five plants to perform an evaluation, but only one complied. One plant argued it was already under federal emission restrictions. The others said they were meeting visibility benchmarks.
The EPA changed course six months later and approved the plan, adopting a new policy that state plans are good enough if the state can show visibility improvements exceed projections at national parks and wilderness areas affected by its pollution. West Virginia had done that.The National Parks Conservation Association, the Sierra Club and the environmental law firm Earthjustice are suing EPA, arguing the new policy allowed West Virginia to avoid imposing pollution reductions and threatens air quality in national parks, including Shenandoah, the Great Smoky Mountains and Mammoth Cave, already one of the nation’s haziest parks.Environmentalists warn that the new policy has far-reaching implications. Visibility levels might hit benchmarks thanks to plants closing or switching fuels, but relying solely on those measurements allows plants that are still polluting to get away with doing nothing, said Joshua Smith, an attorney for the Sierra Club.For example, as early as 2024, the Biden-era EPA said it planned to reject California’s plan because state officials didn’t consider pollutants other than smog and didn’t explain why they didn’t evaluate pollution levels at a number of refineries and airports. The Trump EPA approved it last summer in part 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 the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said they don’t comment on pending litigation.EPA rejects plant closures in Colorado and Hawaii
Trump’s EPA rejected Colorado’s plan this January largely because it would have closed a coal-burning power plant near Pueblo without consent from owner Colorado Springs Utilities, according to EPA documents. The agency noted Colorado Springs’ concerns about the closure’s effects on the state’s electricity supply and that forcing closure could be illegal. The state 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, the senior director of state air quality programs, told The Associated Press.Hawaii’s plan calls for closing six boilers at two power plants on the islands of Hawaii and Maui, as well as the option of shutting down several diesel generators on Maui. The EPA hasn’t made a final decision, but in February signaled it planned to reject those closures, saying that, similar to the Colorado situation, the state hasn’t shown the shutdowns would be legal.Trump EPA to states: Focus on energy supplyThe EPA also has warned that the Trump administration won’t support states that push for plant closures to comply with regional haze requirements and that states have to consider plant closure or pollution reduction technology’s effects on 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 said 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 that works to expand access to domestic energy sources, nor the American Coal Council, a group that supports the coal industry, responded to messages seeking comment.Support for coal like ‘digging up a grave’Jim Schaberl is a former air and water quality manager at Shenandoah National Park in northern Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, less than 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the West Virginia line.He said that when he started his job at the park in 2008, a sooty, yellowish-brown haze from West Virginia coal plants often hovered over the park. Now, he said, visibility has improved so dramatically that hikers can make out the Washington Monument 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the east. Trump is threatening to undo all of that, he said.“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.” ___
>>1499422This fucking monster is doing absolutely everything he can to destroy this country. If it'd make things worse, he's doing it.
>>1499427Well you know we could build more nuclear plants, provide clean energy that will meet demands, but guess who has a fucking problem with that. Start's with D.
>>1499430I am so fucking sick of hearing “b-b-but the denocrats!!” every single time Trump makes things worse. And don’t you even fucking try to talk about clean energy when your retard leader is shitting all over exactly that.
>>1499430Come up with a place to put the spent nuclear waste first. They still haven't done that in the last 70 years.
>>1499430Nuclear isn’t clean energy. You need to say cleaner energy, as in it’s cleaner than coal, although that in itself is also arguably not true because there’s nuclear waste that needs to be controlled properly. At the moment it’s mostly retards trying to argue about this as just more culture war bullshit, when what’s actually needed is a cleaner environment and that should be everyone’s priority
Trump is incredibly fucking stupid on these environmental concern matters. The bullshit he pulled with the plastic straws when everyone sane knows they’re an awful thing, all single use plastic needs to stop and we need to get back to using glass bottles rather than plastic and this sort of thing is something the president could get around, make some improvements to the domestic glass manufacturing industry and easier ways for people to recycle, but no
>>1499434Republicans have fully adopted Putin's strategy to 'otherside' everything because they know if they keep flooding the zone with bullshit, the average voter will get exhausted trying to figure out all their lies and start to believe them. None of this changes the fact that republicans are the clear pro pollution party.
To a significant chunk of the Republican base, even if they think that pollution is bad, they believe the rapture will be happening in the next 5 to 10 years, so any long term policy that sacrifices present comfort for future gains is retarded.
TRUMP HASNT BEEN IN NATURE FOR YEARS HE ONLY GETS AS CLOSE AS THE GOLF COURSE
>>1499434>And don’t you even fucking try to talk about clean energy when your retard leader is shitting all over exactly that.Bull-fucking-shit. I've been bringing up nuclear energy in /news/ since Trump's first term.>>1499437Oh God we're still pushing this bullshit meme again like we did last thread? tl;dr you're completely fucking wrong. Most of the waste is so small it's contained on-site.>>1499472>there’s nuclear waste that needs to be controlled properly. Which it is. In before that other faggot posts some article about a giant warehouse in Brazil or whatever full of nuclear waste that he got from buzzfeed.
>>1499528you're projecting again, esl shill
>>1499533that isn't the ESL shill, it's the oil shill who always absurdly tries to argue that Biden destroyed the oil industry by banning drilling on federal lands
>>1499548Good
>>1499551For You
>>1499552Not good
>>1499479>if they keep flooding the zone with bullshit, the average voter will get exhausted trying to figure out all their lies and start to believe them. This never made sense to me. If someone’s lying to me constantly or regularly then I end up believing them less, not more.
>>1499593>If someone’s lying to me constantly or regularly then I end up believing them less, not more.Its large scale gish-galloping, anon. Firstly, your average American has neither the time or energy to fact-check every single piece of news that's being fed to them. The first step in rejecting a lie is knowing you're being lied to and conservatives do it so much that the amount of time it takes to debunk every single one of their false claims the news cycle has already moved on to the next thing. Secondly, the lies they feed people are lies that are emotionally satisfying. Instead of difficult to understand, nuanced pictures of the world that illustrate the complexity of its social and economic realities we give them simple "life bad cuz immigrant" and "life bad cuz dems" talking points that give them very simple solutions against complicated problems. It gives them a convenient enemy with convenient solutions. "deport them all" or "imprison them all". People like being lied to, anon. Especially if those lies serve our comfort. Its in our programming.
>>1499422Friendly reminder that Trump's net worth has increased almost 4 billion dollars since coming into office, most through his crypto coin whose contributions are completely untraceable. Its so odd that conspiracy theorists are so good at weaving together narratives but somehow can't see that Trump is clearly working for corporations.
>>1499601His base doesn't care as long as Trump keeps telling them that they're owning the libs. They will believe him every single time.
The local wealthy cut down all the forest where I live, to build houses. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot. They then use the money that they made to vacation in a paradise.Insanity
>>1499601Sometimes the conspirators write the conspiracy theories
>>1499604Owning the "libs" is good policy because the "libs" are totalitarians.
>>1499630>every accusation a confession
>>1499630it's sad that they have you working on sundays esl shill
>>1499633you will never be christian, esl shill
>>1499634feel free to imitate me all you want, it's a lot more entertaining than the usual shill talking point spam
>>1499637That's a different anon BTW. I simply ignore and mark your shitposts. And I'm not even a fan of moderation. You're simply disruptive and your uninspired trolling annoys me. It would be different if you were a creative person.
>>1499641you're not a very good liar. and i can't imagine anything much more pathetic than being a tattle tale on this website full of pedophiles and nazis
>>1499646not caring about the state of the things you like is more pathetic
>>1499648>liking /news/you must be one of the most miserable beings on this universe
>>1499630>act like a totalitarian to own the imaginary totalitariansWhy are you like this?
>>1499649Go back to your usual shithole containment board if you don't like it.
>>1499679stop crying pussy, i'll be here making fun of you for being a bottom shelf shill and there's nothing you can do about it. get a real job
>>1499681>stop crying pussyThat's hilarious coming from the moron who visits a board he hates to shill far right political talking points.
>>1499695i would be a moron if that's what i was doing, good point
>>1499628Remember when conservatives shit their pants for 4 years over "the big guy" in Hunter's emails but Trump makes 3 billion dollars in untraceable funds on a scam coin and none of them give a shit?
>>1499745Yeah sure he sucks, but do you really want to go back to Democrat rule?Remember the insane shit we went through? Lockdowns, chimpouts, internet censorship, vaccines, transbeer, Sportswear ads featuring morbidly obese black women, carbon credits etc.Not long ago you had to look at that tranny general and had to said it was completely normal, or you could literally lose your job, become unemployable, and go to jail if you didn't.For all the problems with the Trump admin, its 5% of the issues we'd have right now if that retarded whore Kamala was in charge, Ukraine would probably have used nukes by now at the very least on Moscow, and Iran would have used nukes for sure against us, and the USA would already be in a ground-war with Iran right now but with our hands tied by woke rules like the Geneva laws, complete economic meltdown, mismanaged from top to bottom by trannies and woke retards paying lip service, with all the other woke bullshit.And of course all that fraud-grift would be ignored, causing an endless inflation-spiral, and there would never be a legitimate democratic election ever again in the USA or elsewhere. People have short memory and don't remember just how much worse things were or could be. If Dems win the midterms it's all of this and worse will happen!
>>1499762that's a lot of words to still not convince anyone you're white or american
>>1499762People can't afford to live under Trump. You're literally seeing thats better than having to see a trans person.
>>1499762Epstein may be dead, but his culture war psyop lives on.
>>1499762>but do you really want to go back to Democrat rule?God yes, things were so much better 4 years ago. Honestly I hope Trump revokes the constitutional amendment which forbids him to run again because that means Obama can also run again and beat the shit out of him.
>>1499766Yeah but Trump wasn't responsible for that inflation. The 25-30% inflation was under Biden https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/markets-and-finance/the-biden-inflation-tracker/
>>1499770Why was it good when Law Enforcement wore masks 4 years ago but bad when Law Enforcement wears masks now?
>>1499762>but do you really want to go back to Democrat rule?100%. Absolutely. Without question. >Lockdowns, Trump was the president during lockdowns. His health department wrote the intial guidelines for lock downs. He was the one who shut down schools.>chimpoutsThe biggest riots and protests of the last 20 years were under Trump>internet censorshipThis never happened>vaccinesTrump brags about how operation lightspeed was one of his greatest achievements>Sportswear ads featuring morbidly obese black womenThis has 0 impact on my life. I don't care.>And of course all that fraud-grift would be ignoredTrump's net worth has increased 4 billion dollars while in office. His income from his crypto coin is untraceable. >and there would never be a legitimate democratic election ever againWhen Hillary and Kamala lost they conceded the next day. Trump hired fake electors to forge and file fraudulent slates with congress to make himself the winner.
>>1499774>heritagefoundationDiscarded
>>1499770God, I hope not. Obama really was the Democratic version of Reagan, a charismatic fuckup. He really shit the bed with the 08 recovery, and the K shaped economy we all hate that squeezed the working class took shape during his presidency. Feel like every day is a struggle and you're having to count pennies? Everything being consolidated into a monopoly allowing for enshittification? Rent-seeking from private-equity turning everything into monthly subscriptions? That was Obama letting businesses run wild during the recovery period and writing new rules into the new economy. He didn't hold anyone to account, didn't make an effort to institute financial or media guardrails, gutted the national democratic movement (resulting in massive losses), and so on, but he was charismatic, he didn't have any major scandals, and did get us out of a recession (even if it were in a bad way) and gave us some healthcare relief, so that's what people remember. Really, Biden would have been the better guy in 08 if he wasn't so staunchly beholden to Israel and two or more decades younger.
>>1499779Biden would have been better than Obama back in 08, period.
>>1499775Hey remember how those law enforcement wore badges?
>>1499777you will never be american, esl shill
>>1499774>I proudly get my data from heritage.orgJesus christ the absolute state of this board
>>1499783>No argumentGottem
>>1499762>but do you really want to go back to Democrat rule?Yes.
>>1499762This, unironically. People are coping if they think we're worse off under Trump than we were under that retard Biden. One of them let several million illegals into the country, the other put a stop to illegal border crossings by over 90%.
>>1499805>People are coping if they think we're worse off under Trump than we were under that retard Biden.We objectively are right now. Trump is literally getting us into another middle eastern forever war, adding $2 to every gas price in the nation, and has an unemployment rate on par with a fucking pandemic. It was objectively better 2 years ago compared to now.
>>1499808Don't forget the net 0 addition to jobs growth and Trump being responsible for 27% of our entire national debt
>>1499808>Trump is literally getting us into another middle eastern forever war,Which sucks, but Biden/Kamala was about to start WW3 by getting us into a ground war in Ukraine. So far all we've done is drop bombs and missiles while Trump flip flops on whether he wants to keep going or pull out and declare victory for himself.
>>1499808War with Iran is actually worse than Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not just that Iran would be the dominant Middle Eastern power if we weren't boxing them in, that their terrain makes any land invasion a nightmare, or that they are richer and have a much higher population than Iraq or Afghanistan, it's that our military has been hollowed out by the same forces that have hollowed out everything else in our society. Corps have offshored as much as they can get away with, then gouged and shortchanged our military in the name of maximizing shareholder value, just like everything else. Who cares if you can get a 2% increase in lethality in comparison to our peer adversaries if the equipment costs 20000% more? And because of this, our munition stockpiles dwindled to critical levels within weeks of the start of engagements. Also, our aircraft carriers are literally flooding with sewage. This isn't the Gulf War military. This is one that may get high speed, but does so with inordinate drag and uses up all its fuel within the first minute. Not a great recipe for a Grand Prix.
>>1499819>usrussia shill, nobody respects your country anymore
>>1499820>Also, our aircraft carriers are literally flooding with sewage.Oh God damn it, this bullshit again? One aircraft carrier that has historically had plumbing issues since it was built, and it doesn't affect the combat readiness of the ship.
>>1499822They're all doom and gloom because TDS, but our military could take on every other military in the world at once and win. There is nothing that can beat America's military.
>>1499825Bullshit otherwise Trump would've invaded Greenland and annexed Canada on the way
>>1499828Yeah, but ruling Canadians is fucking pointless as they aren't even human.
>>1499783Always the fucking illiterate retard bringing that argument, huh?
>>1499632ThisGaslight, Obstruct, Project (Pedophiles)
>>1499825And yet you're a paranoid, insecure little dipshit who needs to cling to that suggestion like a security blanket.It's a good thing the strength of the military is the only thing that matters. Not supply lines to make sure our weapons function. Not winning the hearts and minds of the people we invade. Nope, the only factor is us having enough ordinace to kill every man woman and child on the planet. That's why we won in Vietnam.
pervend all porrutionlibe natural desplanet smoke 69 funtimeryonr habby
who's gas chambers are those?
>>1499941>we won in VietnamWhat did you win?
Theres a reason I've abandoned the american dream and decided to go full nomad, and try to retrofit a small RV to be entirely self sustained. Although the engine conversion will take time and I hope the major electric and bio diesel options dont just get entirely knocked out of the running by then. Unfortunately I got what I voted for and have regretted it for going on 6 years.
>>1500238weird larp
>>1500209Another example of conservatives not understanding sarcasm, thank you.
