This bill amends section 319(b) of the Clean Air Act. It changes how air quality monitoring data tied to "exceptional events" and to actions to reduce wildfire risk are handled. The bill defines "action to mitigate wildfire risk" as a prescribed fire or similar measure done under State approved practices. It broadens the definition of "exceptional event" to include natural events, human actions that mirror natural events, or human actions unlikely to recur. It lists exclusions such as ordinary air stagnation, meteorological inversions, and pollution from source noncompliance.
The bill requires the EPA Administrator to issue revisions to regulations within 18 months after the bill is enacted. It adds a requirement that when multiple States notify EPA about the same multistate air quality event, the Administrator must do regional modeling and analysis. The bill also directs the Administrator to create a public website within 12 months and update it monthly to show the status of petitions. The bill clarifies that air monitoring data directly due to these exceptional events or wildfire-mitigation actions can be petitioned to be excluded from many regulatory determinations (for example, exceedances, designations, attainment demonstrations, and preconstruction demonstrations).
The bill also inserts a guiding principle that actions to mitigate wildfire risk can help reduce the size and frequency of wildfires, and it removes an existing paragraph (paragraph (4)) from section 319(b).
No publicly available information.
The bill aims to clarify rules and procedures so that prescribed fires and similar wildfire-risk reduction actions can be considered separately from ordinary pollution events. Supporters would say it updates definitions, requires regulatory revisions and regional analysis for multistate events, and increases transparency through a public website.
No publicly available information.