An official website of the United States government.

This is not the current EPA website. To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2021. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. More information »

Visibility and Haze

Final Action to Address Regional Haze - 2012

May 30, 2012 - EPA has finalized a rule that allows the trading programs in the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) to serve as an alternative to determining source-by-source Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART). This rule provides that states in the CSAPR region can substitute participation in CSAPR for source-specific BART for sulfur dioxide and/or nitrogen oxides emissions from power plants. EPA also finalized a limited disapproval of certain states' plans that previously relied on CAIR to improve visibility and substituted a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) that relies on CSAPR.

  • Rule (PDF) (18 pp, 352 K) - Federal Register - June 7, 2012

Note: the most recent revisions to the Regional Haze Rule were finalized in January 2017. 2017 Regional Haze Final Rule

You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.