What: On October 2, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking requesting comments on streamlining regulatory requirements impacting states’ visibility improvement obligations under the Clean Air Act (CAA).
Why: The Regional Haze program addresses visibility impairment in national parks and wilderness areas. The program targets visibility impairment caused by manmade air pollution, primarily from industrial sources, vehicles, and other human activities. The goals of the program are to prevent future, and remedy existing, impairment of visibility from manmade air pollution.
The EPA is soliciting feedback on ways to streamline and clarify certain requirements governing the Regional Haze program going forward. Specifically, the agency is looking for input on the following topics:
- Developing and implementing a reasonable progress metric.
- Development of criteria used to determine when a state implementation plan (SIP) revision is necessary.
- Determining SIP content requirements.
The EPA intends to use the information it receives to inform a forthcoming proposed rulemaking on the Regional Haze program.
Action: Comments are due December 1, 2025.
ADVANCED NOTICE OF NPRM:
Visibility Protection: Regional Haze State Plan Requirements Rule Revision
CONTACT:
Nick Goldstein
EMAIL:
Alerts Archive
Is your small business or entity being impacted by a proposed rule? If yes, write a comment letter to the proposing agency.