This week, millions of Americans woke up to hazy skies and scratchy throats under air quality alerts, not because of anything happening in their own local communities or states, but because smoke from the hundreds of wildfires burning in Canada drifted across the border.Across the Atlantic seaboard to the Midwest, Americans were told to stay indoors.
Seniors and people with respiratory conditions faced increased health risks.Kids enjoying their summer break watched their outdoor plans get cancelled.
Families on vacation were stuck inside.America’s own regulatory system allows forests to grow dangerously overgrown, letting dead trees and dense underbrush pile up for years while environmental reviews drag on before a single chainsaw ever starts.Meanwhile, drought intensifies conditions and one lightning strike, or a careless spark, can turn into an inferno.
This is the opposite of environmental stewardship and neglect dressed up as caution.Americans deserve policies that help prevent catastrophic fires before they start, protect our communities when fires do occur, and ensure our environmental laws actually improve the environment instead of burying commonsense solutions in years of bureaucratic delay.TRUMP BLAMES CANADA FOR WILDFIRE SMOKE, SAYS POLLUTION COSTS SHOULD BE ADDED TO TARIFFSUnder the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established regulations for six critical air pollutants, the majority of which are found in wildfire smoke.We passed two pieces of legislation on a bipartisan basis to support states in their efforts to mitigate, respond to, and recover from wildfires.The Fire Improvement and Reforming Exceptional Events (FIRE) Act rests on a simple truth: preventing catastrophic wildfires is itself an environmental win.Prevention beats response every time, and waiting for disaster to strike is almost always the most expensive, and most dangerous option on the table.
The FIRE Act allows states to perform prescribed bu...