“A bill to amend the Clean Air Act to modify the handling of air quality monitoring with respect to prescribed fires, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises Clean Air Act provisions governing the exclusion of air quality monitoring data influenced by exceptional events (i.e., natural events or uncontrollable human activities unlikely to recur) or prescribed fires (i.e., planned ignitions to meet land management objectives, such as preventing wildfires) from regulatory determinations, including nonattainment designations and compliance demonstrations. Specifically, it (1) expands the definition of exceptional event to explicitly include prescribed fires whose purpose is to prevent more severe emissions, grants primary determination authority to impacted states (subject to EPA override via revised regulations), and adds a definition of prescribed fire; (2) directs EPA, after consulting Federal land managers, State air pollution control agencies, State foresters, and State fish and wildlife agencies, to propose regulatory revisions within 270 days of enactment (previously by March 1, 2006) and finalize them within 180 days thereafter (from one year); (3) updates data handling and implementation requirements to cover prescribed fires and extends their application to area designations, reclassifications, and attainment demonstrations; (4) requires EPA to collaborate with multiple state, local, or Tribal agencies on regional, national, or international exceptional event analyses upon request; and (5) specifies that the amendments do not retroactively reclassify prior stationary source emissions as exceptional events.