by Jeffrey St. Clair

About the author: Jeffrey St. Clair is the environmental editor of Counterpunch, a bimonthly political newsletter.

When Bill Clinton journeyed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in the fall of 1996 to preside over the creation of a new national monument, he quipped to reporters that it was kind of odd that there was so much fog in Arizona at that time of year. That wasn’t fog, Mr. President, it was smog, clogging the air in one of the most remote and least populated areas in North America. The pollution shrouding the Grand Canyon had wafted from the smokestacks of coal- fired power plants and refineries hundreds of miles away.

Increasingly Toxic Air

The Grand Canyon is only one of dozens of national parks where toxic compounds in the air are stunting...