Park visitors miss out on an average 50 miles of scenery due to haze caused by coal-burning power plants. But Utah and Wyoming state air plans don’t require pollution controls on our region’s worst polluters: coal-burning power plants.

The primary pollutants that cause regional haze, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), are linked to serious health effects, including premature death. 

Despite the Clean Air Act’s requirement that states show reasonable progress toward reducing haze-causing emissions, Utah and Wyoming have submitted plans to the EPA allowing their largest coal plants to continue operating without installing common-sense controls to reduce NOx, SOx and other harmful pollutants.  

The majority of these coal plants — Jim Bridger, Naughton, Dave Johnston and Wyodak in Wyoming and Hunter and Huntington in Utah — are primarily owned by Rocky Mountain Power. Rocky Mountain Power and its owner, Pacificorp, have used litigation and delay tactics to dodge pollution controls for more than a decade.

The Bridger Power Plant in Wyoming. These coal plants cause dozens of deaths and thousands of asthma attacks every year, in addition to damaging the beauty and health of our national parks.

The Clean Air Act presents a great opportunity to improve visibility at our national parks and other treasured wilderness areas AND improve air quality for people across the region. Despite the law's requirements for reasonable progress to clean up our air, Utah and Wyoming proposed plans that contain serious flaws and improperly conclude that no new pollution reductions are warranted at industrial sources.

The EPA is now reviewing the Utah and Wyoming plans. We are asking the EPA to reject Utah’s and Wyoming’s do-nothing plans and require real pollution reductions at the region's dirtiest coal-burning plants.