In testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, PERC’s Vice President of Law and Policy, Jonathan Wood, highlighted the urgent need to expand the use of prescribed fire. A proven but underutilized conservation tool, prescribed fire can help improve air and water quality, maintain wildlife habitat, and reduce the threat of catastrophic wildfire.
Current federal policy under the Clean Air Act (CAA), however, creates a major obstacle: Smoke from wildfires is routinely excluded from air quality limits, while the less harmful smoke from prescribed fire counts against state compliane. This creates a perverse incentive that discourages the very practice that could reduce wildfire risks and improve long-term air quality.
The Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act proposes a narrowly tailored solution to this policy problem. It would give the Environmental Protection Agency and states the needed flexibility to treat prescribed fire smoke the same as wildfire smoke, while streamlining the process. It would also have no effect on EPA’s authority, the pollutants covered by the CAA, or any substantive environmental standard.
Key points from PERC’s testimony
- Prescribed fire restores forests, protects air and water quality, and maintains wildlife habitat.
- The Clean Air Act unintentionally discourages prescribed fire by penalizing its smoke while exempting wildfire smoke.
- WEPA would correct this imbalance, providing a practical, narrowly tailored fix.
- The bill preserves EPA’s authority, maintains all current pollutants and standards, and ultimately improves environmental outcomes.
