The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“USEPA”) released guidance on August 20, 2019 that relaxes some of the stricter guidance from 2016 with how to comply with the Clean Air Act Regional Haze Program.

The Clean Air Act Regional Haze Program requires that states work together toward a goal of achieving “natural visibility conditions” at the nation’s 156 parks and wilderness areas by 2064.  Achieving this goal would require reducing air pollutants like power plant emissions, wildfire smoke, and other particulate matter.  States are required to submit an implementation plan to the USEPA every ten years, with the next round due in 2021. 

The new guidance does away with the 2016 proposed guidance that said it would be reasonable for states to look at 80% of their relevant pollution sources as part of the 10-year period which relieves the burden on the industry.  The new guidance allows states to choose the sources to evaluate, and additionally reminds states that they do not have to do everything under the prior 10-year period. 

Environmental groups say these relaxed interpretations encourages states to ignore air protection rules and could lead states to fail to make meaningful progress.  However, several states have developed their own plans on the basis of the 2016 guidance and the new guidance does little to change the next round of implementation plans for those states.

While the USEPA guidance fills in large blanks in the Regional Haze Program process, USEPA plans to revisit certain aspects to address in the future.  

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