I tried disabling it in the setup/launcher options, but to no avail(savegames still load with fog).I also disabled it in autoexec.cfg, but that doesn't seem to do anything either.
As horrid as MM9's sky-box looks(the worst I can recall from a commercial release), it's still preferable to the pea-soup.
Belated note to devs(yes, I appreciate that 3DO & NWC are long gone): Besides just being ugly, this manner of impenetrable smog(erstwhile employed as a performance optimization gimmick) does little to convey an ambience befitting of the genre(esp as inordinately skewed in frequency as it is).
Bleh!