Conservation Groups Issue Reply to EPA in West Virginia Regional Haze Lawsuit

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging the agency's approval of West Virginia's Regional Haze State Implementation Plan has advanced in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Today, the conservation groups filed a response to the EPA's brief opposing EPA's decision to uphold the West Virginia Plan, a far departure from the agency's long-standing interpretation of the Clean Air Act.

EPA's approval of West Virginia's Plan relies on a Trump-era EPA policy change that would allow states to bypass the Clean Air Act's foundational requirement - that "reasonable progress" be made toward preventing or remedying impairments to visibility, caused by manmade air pollution, in designated national parks and wilderness areas. Approving the Plan, the conservation groups argue, is unlawful and would amount to a rewrite of the Clean Air Act.

If the court doesn't grant the advocacy groups' petition, treasured West Virginia wilderness areas such as Dolly Sods and Otter Creek, as well as Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, and the Great Smoky Mountains - all of which routinely struggle with air pollution issues - would see increased risk of poor air quality.

The West Virginia Plan specifically fails to require additional controls for any of the state's highest-polluting coal plants, many of which need to make affordable, industry-standard upgrades of their old, inefficient sulfur dioxide (SO2) controls to reduce health-harming and visibility-impairing emissions. The EPA's dangerous new policy has been used to propose approvals of insufficient haze plans in several other states and disapprovals of states that aimed to reduce their haze pollution. This lawsuit, first filed in September 2025, marked the first challenge to the policy change.

"Both Dolly Sods and Otter Creek Wilderness areas are perfect examples of what proactive environmental regulation can achieve," said Chris Wade, member of Sierra Club West Virginia. "As someone who enjoys fly fishing, hiking, and camping in both watersheds, I care deeply about the negative impact rollbacks or the easing of environmental regulations would have on West Virginia's people and ecosystems. If the EPA fails to require clean up of haze pollution at local coal power plants, then places we love to recreate in - like Dolly Sods and Otter Creek - will suffer."

"Instead of protecting the air in our national parks, the EPA is letting polluters off the hook," said Ed Stierli, Senior Regional Director at the National Parks Conservation Association . "Parks have been suffering from high levels of haze pollution for decades. This case is about ensuring that national parks get the protection they deserve. Parks as far away as Everglades and Carlsbad Caverns are feeling the effects from West Virginia's polluters. Yet, the EPA disregarded 26 years of its own policies instead of requiring West Virginia to clean up its air."

"Instead of cleaning up the air in our parks, EPA's new policy gives polluters a pass", said Charles McPhedran, senior attorney with Earthjustice . "EPA needs to cut pollution from smokestacks to protect parks and downwind communities alike."