Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a memorandum clarifying guidance on Regional Haze State Implementation Plans (SIPs) to support the reliability of our electric grid. For far too long, the Clean Air Act (CAA) and the Regional Haze Program (Program) have been weaponized to compel power plant closures in an attempt to force generation shifting. Despite one of the necessary considerations in the Program being energy impacts, effects on grid reliability have not been taken into account. EPA will no longer support this misuse. The agency will uphold the law and return the Program to its intended purpose. This guidance update is one of many actions EPA has taken to restructure the broken Regional Haze program and advance cooperative federalism with EPA’s state air partners.
“With recent events like Winter Storm Fern and significant increases in demand in electricity, we must ensure that the electric grid Americans depend on remains reliable,” said Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Aaron Szabo. “This guidance update makes certain that the lights will turn on when you flick the switch in your home because that is now a consideration for States when looking to make significant changes to coal power plants for purely ideological purposes.”
EPA prepared this non-binding guidance update to assist states with the preparation of any remaining second planning period regional haze SIPs due to EPA, as well as any future revisions to those SIPs. This guidance update clarifies that EPA encourages states to consider potential impacts on grid reliability when determining the emission reduction measures that are necessary to make reasonable progress in meeting Program air quality requirements. In CAA section 169A(g)(1), there are four considerations that are often referred to as the statutory factors associated with reasonable progress. These four factors are the costs of compliance, the time necessary for compliance, the energy and nonair quality environmental impacts of compliance, and the remaining useful life. In this guidance update, EPA explains that considering grid reliability impacts is contained within analyzing the energy and nonair environmental impacts factor, a key determination in second planning period regional haze SIPs.
EPA continues to move forward with the previously announced effort to meaningfully revise the Regional Haze Rule (RHR).
For more information on this guidance update and a link to the memorandum, visit the following webpage: https://www.epa.gov/visibility/update-guidance-regional-haze-state-implementation-plans-second-implementation-period
Background
In 2017, EPA announced revisions to the RHR,1 and issued Guidance on Regional Haze State Implementation Plans for the Second Implementation Period2 in August 2019. There have since been significant increases in electricity demand and strain on the reliability of the United States’ electrical grid. EPA does not support states forcing the premature closure of electric generating facilities in order to comply with the CAA’s regional haze second planning period requirements.
Under the current RHR, states must submit SIPs to address visibility impairing pollutants in mandatory Class I Federal areas to demonstrate reasonable progress towards the national visibility goal under CAA section 169A(a)(1). Class I areas include many units in the National Park System and federally designated wilderness areas.
On December 31, 2025, Administrator Zeldin signed a final rule revising the current RHR to extend the due date from July 31, 2028, to July 31, 2031, for the third planning period of SIPs. EPA is extending this deadline to ensure that states and regional planning organizations have adequate time to adapt third planning period SIPs to any changes EPA makes to the Program as part of the ongoing effort to restructure existing regulations. This action was first announced through an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
