To amend the Clean Air Act to require revisions to regulations governing the review and handling of air quality monitoring data influenced by exceptional events or actions to mitigate wildfire risk.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Evans of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The FIRE Act (Fire Improvement and Reforming Exceptional Events Act) amends the Clean Air Act to treat prescribed burns and other wildfire risk mitigation activities as "exceptional events." This allows states to petition the EPA to exclude air quality monitoring data from these activities when determining whether areas meet federal air quality standards.
Who Benefits and How
State governments and land management agencies benefit by gaining the ability to exclude air quality data from prescribed burns in their EPA compliance calculations. This means they can conduct more controlled burns without risking penalties for violating air quality standards. Forestry companies, timber operations, and electric utilities also benefit because they face fewer regulatory hurdles when conducting prescribed burns for fuel reduction and vegetation management. The bill also benefits ranchers and agricultural operations that use controlled burns for land management.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The EPA faces increased administrative workload processing new petitions and must create and maintain a public transparency website tracking all petition statuses. Environmental advocacy groups lose some ability to use air quality data to challenge prescribed burning activities. Communities near prescribed burn areas may face more frequent smoke exposure as the regulatory disincentives for conducting burns are reduced.
Key Provisions
- Creates new definition of "action to mitigate wildfire risk" covering prescribed fires and similar state-approved measures
- Expands "exceptional event" definition to include human activities that mirror natural events
- Allows states to petition EPA to exclude air quality data from wildfire mitigation activities
- Requires EPA to conduct regional modeling for multistate air quality events
- Mandates EPA create public transparency website tracking petition status within 12 months
- Expands uses for excluded data to include area designations, attainment determinations, and permit decisions
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
Amends the Clean Air Act to expand the definition of exceptional events to include actions to mitigate wildfire risk (such as prescribed burns), allowing states to exclude air quality monitoring data affected by these activities from EPA regulatory determinations.
Policy Domains
Legislative Strategy
"Expand regulatory flexibility for wildfire risk mitigation activities by treating prescribed burns and similar measures as exceptional events under the Clean Air Act, allowing air quality data from these activities to be excluded from EPA attainment determinations."
Likely Beneficiaries
- State governments and land management agencies conducting prescribed burns
- Forestry and land management companies
- Timber industry
- Property owners and communities in fire-prone areas
- Electric utilities with wildfire mitigation obligations
Likely Burden Bearers
- EPA (increased administrative burden for processing petitions and maintaining transparency website)
- Environmental and public health advocates (reduced ability to enforce air quality standards)
- Communities potentially exposed to more smoke from prescribed burns
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_governor"
- → Governor of a State
- "the_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A prescribed fire or similar measure, undertaken in accordance with State approved practices, to reduce the risk and severity of wildfires.
An event that (I) affects air quality, (II) is not reasonably controllable or preventable, (III) is a natural event, or caused by human activity intended to mirror natural events, or caused by human activity unlikely to recur, and (IV) is caused by human activity unlikely to recur at a particular location. Excludes air mass stagnation, meteorological inversions, and source noncompliance.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology