Fire Improvement and Reforming Exceptional Events Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CRANK. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Alabama, and I thank my colleague from Colorado (Mr. Evans) for sponsoring this bill.

Colorado, my home State, is facing years of severe drought. Last year, Colorado saw one of the worst wildfire seasons since 2020, with more than 200,000 acres burned statewide.

This past winter didn't deliver the snowpack that Colorado relies on to help tamp down that wildfire risk. As many Coloradans already expect, this year could be even worse.

At the same time, wildfire mitigation has not been carried out at the pace or scale needed to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires. Across the West, wildfires are becoming more intense. They are destroying homes and businesses, damaging soil and watersheds, and making it harder for the land to recover.

Of course, they produce more emissions, and that creates a real problem for States like Colorado that are struggling to maintain compliance with the Federal air quality standards.

Along the Front Range, ozone levels already exceed Federal limits, and wildfire smoke has contributed to some of the highest ozone days on record. Yet, the EPA's current process for handling wildfire emissions does not provide States with enough certainty to secure exemptions for these so-called exceptional events.

In fact, some of Colorado's highest ozone readings have been driven by wildfire emissions, pollution that is entirely outside the State's control. If those wildfire days were excluded in 2024, Colorado's highest ozone reading would have been 73 parts per billion instead of 88, well within the Federal standard of 75.

Without these exemptions, States and local communities are forced to bear the consequences of nonattainment, whether that means new regulatory burdens, higher costs for consumers, or barriers for businesses trying to operate and grow.

It also makes it harder to carry out the very actions that would reduce wildfire risk in the first place. Prescribed burns, one of the most effective tools we have, become more difficult because their emissions count against compliance.

Research from Stanford University shows that prescribed burns can reduce wildfire severity by 16 percent and net smoke pollution by an average of 14 percent. That is backward.

I am proud to cosponsor the FIRE Act, led by my colleague, Gabe Evans, which brings much-needed clarity to how the Clean Air Act treats wildfire emissions and ensures that States aren't penalized for taking proactive steps to reduce risk. We should not have environmental policies that lead to worse environmental outcomes.

Right now, by discouraging prescribed burns, we are making it harder for States like Colorado to do proper fire mitigation. We are contributing to more emissions, not less, and that just doesn't make sense.

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his leadership on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to support the FIRE Act.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source