During a picnic in the national Great Smoky Mountains in 1995, Donnhwee climbed in the hope that he would look across the valley below. All he saw was a wall of gray fog.
He said today, he could see about 50 miles (80 km) across the same valley to the Campeland Mountains.
The 26 -year -old federal regulation known as the regional fog base has helped reduce pollution on national gardens, wild areas and tribal seizures, and to restore some of the country’s most natural prospects for their outdoor lovers such as Parger. But the specialists of maintaining fear are afraid that these gains will be lost after the administration of President Donald Trump He announced in March The rule is among the dozens of historical environmental regulations that are planning to decline.
“This means that the promise made to the American audience is lost,” said Barger, 74. “More and more generations of people will grow as ignorance as I was, and I did not realize what I miss or see.”
Fog is formed when small molecules of air pollution, such as sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxide, are scattered and absorbed sunlight, indisputable and decreasing vision.
The Congress amended the Clean Air Law in 1977 to make the restoration and maintenance of the vision a target of 156 national gardens, wild areas, wildlife, and tribal reservations in 36 states. This includes places like Great Smoky Mountains National in North Carolina and Tennessee; Grand Canyon National Park; National Garden of the iceberg; The border water is the wild boat area.
After years of drafting and litigation, the US Environmental Protection Agency adopted the regulations known as the regional fog base in 1999 to implement the amendments.
Al -Qaeda calls for obtaining natural vision conditions by 2064 and the states that states reach in plans that include restrictions on emissions, compliance tables and monitoring strategies. Old facilities that emit pollution, such as coal -powered power plants, must build mitigation technology such as cleaning or closing devices periodically to reduce total annual emissions.
The state’s plans have been afflicted with delays as the Environmental Protection Agency agrees with parts of it and rejects others. For example, two large states of oil and coal production, North Dakota and Wyoming, and industrial groups in the Federal Court in January, have endeavored to review the decisions of the Environmental Protection Agency that rejects its plans, according to the Harvard Law Law Program of Harvard.
Al Qaeda works in conjunction with other federal inflammatory regulations, but it was decisive in clearing the sky on national gardens and wild areas.
An analysis of the Associated Press data from the country’s network of monitoring sites since 1999, when the base was implemented, until 2023, 93 % of the wild regions and areas have witnessed the improvement of air quality in the net days. No gardens or wild areas have witnessed any noticeable exacerbation of vision.
The vision of the National Great Smoky Mountains was twice on a typical day in 2023 as it was in 1999, which represents the biggest improvement among national parks.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the base between 2007 and 2018 has reduced 500,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 300,000 tons of nitrous oxides annually. The average optical range increased from 90 miles to 120 miles (144 km to 193 km) in some western parks and from 50 to 70 miles (80 km to 112 km) in some eastern gardens, according to Harvard.
On March 12 See 31 prominent environmental regulationsIncluding the regional fog base. Zealin described the announcement as “the most dependent day to cancel the restrictions in American history” and said in an article published in the Wall Street Journal that the administration “leads a dagger in the heart of the religion of climate change.”
Upon requesting to comment on the regional fog base, the Environmental Protection Agency said they want to calculate pollution from outside the United States better and natural sources and avoid unnecessary burdens of states and industry.
In the cost and benefits analysis of the base before it enters into force, the Environmental Protection Agency found that it would cost energy producers up to $ 98 billion by 2025, with about $ 344 billion in advantages such as health care savings.
Producers argue that the fog base has done its work and it does not make sense to continue to impose costs on it.
“This is a matter of decreasing revenues,” said Jonathan Fortner, temporary president and CEO of Lynette Energy Council, who is defending the coal industry in Northern Dakota. “The air is clean, the data proves this, and the flag supports it.
Two federal properties in North Dakota are subject to al -Qaeda, the national wildlife of Lostwood and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. AP analysis found that both sites have witnessed great improvements over the five years of 2019 to 2023.
Environmental Protection Agency officials did not respond to AP request to obtain a list of power stations that were closed due to the regional fog base. A number of energy industry groups have not responded to the repeated requests for comment, including the American Energy Association and the National Association of Utilities Contractors.
Al -Qaeda defenders say that its elimination may lead to a decrease in tourism and the visitors of the economic boom to the national park areas. National Park Service estimates that 325 million people visited the national parks in 2023, where they spent $ 26.4 billion in Gateway.
Nothing is likely to change overnight. Conservation conservation specialists expect that the Trump administration will continue to decline through linguistic reviews at the base, a process that requires a general suspension period and is likely to lead to the challenges of the court that may be in the past years.
“I watched the Great National Mountain Garden from Smoky from the chemical fog that was devoted to it one day and was getting worse,” said Barger. “It is just this visceral feeling in the place. We have completely lost it. The clean air law works and it is a continuous work. You have to stay with him or not.”
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Science writer at Associated Press Seth Bournenstein contributed to this report.
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