In 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a Regional Haze Ruling that required Rocky Mountain Power to install pollution controls on coal-fired power plants at Hunter and Huntington. The ruling was a big win for Utah’s chronic air quality problems.
Nevertheless EPA head Scott Pruitt has reversed the requirement claiming that the State of Utah can do better than the federal government writing its own regional haze plan.
The problem is, Utah had a regional haze plan and it was no good. EPA imposed the Regional Haze Ruling in the first place after a lawsuit by WildEarth Guardians challenged Utah’s plan.
What’s more, Utah law says that the State Air Quality Board can’t adopt rules more stringent than federal regulations, so Utah’s air quality standards are the same as federal standards.
HEAL Utah: healutah.org