To amend the Clean Air Act to provide for exclusion of air quality monitoring data that is directly due to a catastrophic or beneficial use wildfire from use in determinations with respect to exceedances or violations of the national ambient air quality standard for any air pollutant, and for other purposes.
About This Bill
Committee
Latest Action · February 1, 2024
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The Wildfire Air Quality Act would amend the Clean Air Act to allow the Environmental Protection Agency to exclude air quality data caused by wildfires when determining whether areas are violating federal air quality standards. Under this bill, when the EPA determines that a catastrophic or beneficial use wildfire significantly impacts air quality, the agency can disregard pollution measurements directly caused by that fire when assessing compliance with national air quality standards. This change would primarily affect states and local areas that experience wildfire smoke, as it could prevent them from being classified as non-compliant with federal air standards due to natural wildfire events beyond their control. The EPA would be required to issue final rules implementing these changes within 90 days of the bill's enactment, with no specific funding allocated in the legislation itself. The bill aims to distinguish between pollution from local human activities and pollution from natural wildfire events when evaluating air quality compliance.
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