Does anybody think occasional hazy skies in Oregon’s wilderness areas and Crater Lake National Park rank among the, say, top 100 problems the country ought to solve? Didn’t think so.

Still, the Oregon DEQ, in compliance with federal rules, after long and arduous work, has come up with a voluminous draft of the 2008 Oregon Regional Haze Plan.

The idea is to comply with mandates to reduce various kinds of emissions that contribute to haze so that pre-industrial conditions are re-established by 2064. The plan is kind of sketchy for the long term, though it mentions maybe controlling emissions from ships at sea, among other things.

Required much sooner would be improvements at various industries including PGE’s Boardman power station, the costs of which are estimated now at $471 million.

One cause of haze, seasonal wildfires, is outside the state and federal air quality regulators’ control. So we’ll always have some haze, no matter how much money is spent on planning to have none.

So does all this work have some value? Yes, if you count that it keeps people engaged in the planning process employed. (hh)