Revise regional haze rules and the 2064 natural visibility goal

Research notes

• Two of the Quote’s three parts have moved: the rule is being revised, and the planning-period pressure has been eased by three years. The 2064 natural visibility goal itself is untouched — the January 2026 rule changes a deadline inside the program, not the goal it works toward.
• The 2025-10-02 document is an advance notice soliciting comment on restructuring the Regional Haze Rule; the January 2026 rule is the first finalized piece of that restructuring.
• EPA continued to act on individual second-period state plans throughout — more than forty approvals and disapprovals in the window — which is the program running, not the rule changing.
• The 2026-09-09 North Dakota proposal is the sharpest example of that distinction and is recorded here rather than as an event. EPA proposes to repeal its own December 2024 partial disapproval of North Dakota’s second-period plan and approve the disapproved portions instead, after granting reconsideration to the State and to the coal-fired generators affected — https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/09/09/2026-18290/air-plan-approval-reconsideration-and-repeal-of-air-plan-partial-approval-and-partial-disapproval-of It goes to the Quote’s second sentence in substance, since the disapproved plan is what would have compelled further controls at those units. It is still one state’s plan, not a revision of the regional haze rules and not a change to the 2064 goal, so the rung stays where the January 2026 deadline extension left it. Only the Federal Register abstract was read; the proposal’s text was not.