Environmental Groups Challenge Trump EPA’s Rejection of Hawaiʻi’s Clean Air Plan in Federal Court

Honolulu, HI —

A coalition of conservation and public health groups filed a court challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s rejection of the State of Hawaiʻi’s Regional Haze State Implementation Plan today. The EPA rejected the state’s plan, which would have cleaned up haze-causing pollution by retiring two obsolete fossil fuel power plants on Hawaiʻi Island and Maui. The State of Hawaiʻi also initiated its own legal challenge to EPA’s decision today.

“Trump’s EPA is all about protecting fossil fuel polluters instead of the air we live in and breathe — and here they go again,” said Isaac Moriwake, Managing Attorney for Earthjustice’s Mid-Pacific Office, which has worked for decades to move Hawaiʻi from imported fossil fuels to clean energy. “At HECO’s request, EPA jumped all over this chance to trash the law, pollute the environment, and keep Hawai‘i consumers stuck paying the skyrocketing bills for imported fossil fuels.”

“The Trump EPA is handing polluters another free pass while Americans are denied the enjoyment of our beautiful national parks, and families are left breathing dirtier air,” said Abi Vijayan, senior climate attorney for NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “States have the authority to protect their residents from harmful pollution, and we’re fighting to make sure the administration can’t take that away.”

Without Hawaiʻi’s pollution reduction plan, nearly 8,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, along with the fine particulate matter they form in the atmosphere, will continue to pollute the air around these plants, making skies in the state’s iconic national parks hazy and driving asthma attacks, heart and lung disease, hospital visits, and premature death in nearby communities. The EPA’s action will harm Hawaiʻi communities and result in dirtier air in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes and Haleakalā National Parks.

“Hawaiʻi’s national parks deserve better from the EPA,” said Neal Desai, Senior Pacific Regional Director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “When EPA rejected Hawaiʻi’s plan to safeguard air quality in and around these treasured parks, it increased risks for the parks themselves, as well as for the millions of visitors and nearby communities that depend on clean, healthy air. This decision is just the latest in a string of EPA actions trying to keep outdated, polluting, and inefficient power plants operating regardless of the consequences. People who care about national parks and park communities have no choice but to step up and fight back. We’re taking this legal action to protect Hawai’i Volcanoes, Haleakalā and local communities from the EPA’s recklessness.”

Under the Clean Air Act, states must develop plans every ten years to reduce the haze pollution that obscures views in national parks and wilderness areas. Hawaiian Electric (HECO) proposed and agreed to retire plants instead of installing the required pollution controls. But after the state adopted the utility’s proposal, HECO reneged on its promise to close these old and inefficient plants.

In an August 2025 letter to EPA — sent more than a year after Hawaiʻi finalized its plan — HECO reversed course and asked EPA to disapprove the utility’s own commitments, citing speculative “grid reliability” concerns. EPA used this opening as an excuse to throw out Hawaiʻi’s pollution reduction plan.

“Like in many small communities, we teach our children that your word is your bond. And most people who call Hawaiʻi home understand we have a generational responsibility to protect the land, water, and air we all rely on,” said Wayne Tanaka, Director of the Sierra Club’s Hawaiʻi Chapter. “I’m disappointed that HECO chose to break its promise, by pulling an end-run with the federal government to continue polluting what should be some of the most pristine places in our islands. They can still choose to do the right thing, and we’ll make sure they do.”

Hawaiʻi’s national parks are economic engines for the state. In 2025, more than 1.8 million people visited Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and more than 850,000 visited Haleakalā National Park, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in visitor spending and supporting thousands of jobs. Research shows that visitation to national parks drops by as much as 8 percent when air quality is degraded.

“Our national parks are meant to showcase some of the clearest skies and most spectacular landscapes in America, not become casualties of preventable air pollution,” said Sue Fritzke, former Superintendent of Capitol Reef and Executive Board Member of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. “By rejecting Hawaiʻi’s plan to reduce haze-causing emissions, the EPA is undermining decades of progress under the Clean Air Act, threatening the breathtaking views at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes and Haleakalā National Parks, and putting the health of nearby communities at risk. Protecting our parks means protecting the clean air that visitors, wildlife, and local families all depend on.”