Clean Air Act Changes: Excluding Controlled Burn Emissions for Wildfire Prevention
This law modifies air quality monitoring rules, allowing states to exclude smoke from planned, controlled burns (prescribed fires) from official pollution data. The goal is to encourage proactive forest management and prevent larger, uncontrolled wildfires, which should improve long-term safety and air quality. Citizens might experience temporary smoke from controlled activities, but the risk of catastrophic fires is intended to be reduced.
Key points
Smoke emissions from planned, controlled forest burns will not count against standard state air pollution limits.
States gain more flexibility in forest management and conducting preventive actions against major wildfires.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must quickly update regulations on how air quality data is assessed during preventive fires.
Introduced
Citizen Poll