FIRE Act

This Act may be cited as the “Fire Improvement and Reforming Exceptional Events Act” or the “FIRE Act”.

Section 319(b) of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7619(b)) is amended—

(1) in the subsection heading, by inserting “Or actions To mitigate wildfire risk” after “Events”;

(2) in paragraph (1)—

(A) in the paragraph heading, by striking “Definition of exceptional event” and inserting “Definitions”;

(B) in subparagraph (A), by redesignating clauses (i) through (iv), as subclauses (I) through (IV), respectively;

(C) by striking “(A)” and all that follows through “an event that—” and inserting the following:

“(A) Exceptional event.—

(i) In general.— The term exceptional event means an event that—”;

(D) by amending subclause (III) of subparagraph (A)(i), as redesignated, to read as follows:

“(III) is an event that is—

(aa) a natural event;

(bb) caused by a human activity that is intended to mirror the occurrence or reoccurrence of a natural event; or

(cc) caused by a human activity that is unlikely to recur; and”;

(E) by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the following:

“(ii) Exclusions.— In this subsection, the term exceptional event does not include—

(I) ordinarily occurring stagnation of air masses;

(II) meteorological inversions; or

(III) air pollution relating to source noncompliance.”; and

(F) by adding at the end the following:

“(B) Action to mitigate wildfire risk.— The term action to mitigate wildfire risk means a prescribed fire or similar measure, undertaken in accordance with State approved practices, to reduce the risk and severity of wildfires.”;

(3) in paragraph (2)—

(A) in subparagraph (A)—

(i) by striking “March 1, 2006” and inserting “18 months after the date of enactment of the FIRE Act”;

(ii) by inserting “revisions to” before “regulations”; and

(iii) by adding “or actions to mitigate wildfire risk” before the period at the end;

(B) in subparagraph (B)—

(i) by inserting “including proposed revisions to regulations,” after “subparagraph (A),”;

(ii) by inserting “or action to mitigate wildfire risk” after “an exceptional event”; and

(iii) by striking “paragraph (3)” and inserting “this section”; and

(C) by adding at the end the following:

“(C) Regional analysis.— When more than one State notifies the Administrator of its intent to submit a petition pursuant to this section for an exceptional event or an action to mitigate wildfire risk for the same air quality event, or, if the Administrator determines such a multistate air quality event has occurred, the Administrator shall conduct regional modeling and analysis sufficient to satisfy the demonstration required for an exceptional event or an action to mitigate wildfire risk petition for such air quality event.

(D) Transparency.— Not later than 12 months after the date of enactment of the FIRE Act, the Administrator shall establish, and thereafter update monthly, a public website describing the status of all petitions submitted pursuant to this section for exceptional events and actions to mitigate wildfire risk.”;

(4) in paragraph (3)(A)—

(A) by redesignating clauses (ii) through (v) as clauses (iii) through (vi), respectively; and

(B) by inserting after clause (i) the following:

“(ii) the principle that actions to mitigate wildfire risk can play an important role in reducing the magnitude and frequency of wildfires;”;

(5) in paragraph (3)(B)—

(A) in clause (i), by inserting “or action to mitigate wildfire risk” before “must be”;

(B) by amending clause (ii) to read as follows:

“(ii) a clear causal relationship must exist, or be reasonably expected to exist, between the measured exceedances of a national ambient air quality standard and the exceptional event or action to mitigate wildfire risk to demonstrate that the exceptional event or action to mitigate wildfire risk caused a specific air pollution concentration at a particular air quality monitoring location;”; and

(C) by amending clause (iv) to read as follows:

“(iv) there are criteria and procedures for the Governor of a State to petition the Administrator to exclude air quality monitoring data that is directly due to exceptional events or actions to mitigate wildfire risk from use in determinations by the Administrator with respect to—

(I) area or source exceedances or violations of the national ambient air quality standards;

(II) the designation, redesignation, classification, or reclassification of an area;

(III) the demonstration by a State of attainment of a national ambient air quality standard;

(IV) attainment determinations;

(V) attainment date extensions;

(VI) finding a State implementation plan to be inadequate; or

(VII) preconstruction demonstrations under section 165(a)(3).”; and

(6) by striking paragraph (4).