The costs of EPA‘s imposed Regional Haze plans are significant;
the benefits, however, are suspect. According to peer- reviewed
research, the visibility improvement achieved by EPA‘s Regional
Haze plans is imperceptible to the average person. Regional
Haze: The Basics In 1977 and 1990, Congress passed amendments to
the Clean Air Act providing that States work together to improve
visibility at Federal National Parks and Wilderness Areas.
Together, theseamendments are known as the Regional Haze
provision.A defining characteristic of the Regional Haze program
is that States and not EPA are thelead decision-makers. In floor
debate in 1977, the Congress unequivocally indicated that
Statesshould have the authority to decide how much value to
assign to an aesthetic benefit , and theresulting language of
the Clean Air Act reflects this fact. . According to EPA‘s 2005
Regional Haze implementation gu idelines, ―[T]he [Clean Air] Act
and legislative history indicate that Congress evinced a special
concern with insuring