WILDFIRE EMISSIONS PREVENTION ACT OF 2026

On 2026-09-29, Senator Cynthia M. Lummis (R-WY) delivered a floor speech titled "WILDFIRE EMISSIONS PREVENTION ACT OF 2026" in the Senate.

WILDFIRE EMISSIONS PREVENTION ACT OF 2026

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 154 (Tuesday, September 29, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 29, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S5148-S5158] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] WILDFIRE EMISSIONS PREVENTION ACT OF 2026 Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that is certainly true when it comes to wildfires and smoke. And as climate chaos makes the fire season longer and hotter and more dangerous, wildfires are ravaging States across our country, certainly including my home State of Oregon. This year, at the beginning of fire season, the risk maps showed that the State of Oregon was the epicenter of the highest risk for the most time anticipated. Unfortunately, that crystal ball prepared by the experts turned out to be right. We had a record 2.5 million acres burn this summer. Well, we broke the 2 million acres last summer and the 2.5 million acres this summer. It wasn't that long ago when 1 million acres would have been an extraordinarily horrific fire year. Forests burning, grasslands burning, more lightning strikes, more wind, more drought, more dryness, hotter temperatures--all of it combined to create that extraordinarily destructive summer we have just gone through. I will never forget 6 years ago the Labor Day fires, at the beginning of September, when we had a combination of lightning strikes and wind that brought, basically, a force up from the east, wind over the top of the Cascade Mountains and down every valley, and every valley was burning. We had six cities burn to the ground, and we had another six that were badly scorched. When you saw those cities, it looked like a bomb had gone off. I mean, everything was reduced to ashes, with maybe a cast-iron tub over here, with maybe a metal staircase or a pipe dangling over here, then on the ground a pool of metal when the wheels on cars would melt and run across the ground. It was just devastating to go to the fairgrounds--where thousands of refugees were headed--and hear of their harrowing escapes. Sometimes their cars were starting to melt and smoke as they drove through the fire. Others were seeking refuge in the streams. These fires? They are terrible, and they fill the air with toxins-- toxins [[Page S5149]] from the burning buildings and the burning homes and burning vehicles that are filled with plastics and electronics. Who knows what else is in that smoke? That smoke is incredibly dangerous as well. That is why we need to pass the bipartisan Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act on which I am so pleased to partner with my colleague Senator Curtis from Utah. This bill prepares our communities in two different ways. First, it makes it easier for communities to do prescribed burns. Now, if I turned the clock back about 16 years, communities would say to me: We don't want those prescribed burns. We don't want that day or two of smoke. But after the 2020 Labor Day fires, communities are like: We want to do the prescribed burns. We want them carefully monitored so that they do not escape and cause a larger fire, which has happened on rare occasions. We want to make sure they are done on days when there is enough humidity and so little wind and so little risk of wind that they can't possibly become something other than the prescribed burns. They have to be meticulously planned, carefully controlled, and then they reduce so much fuel on the ground and provide a lot of protection thereafter. So prescribed burns are--along with thinning and mowing-- significant ways to reduce the fuel load and reduce the devastation when there is a fire. But here is the thing: a prescribed burn produces smoke, and that smoke may become a penalty under the Clean Air Act for our communities. So this bill solves that problem so that smoke from a prescribed fire does not create a penalty under the Clean Air Act. Second, this bill helps communities prepare for smoke, to have locations that are safe for people, particularly people with lung problems, with asthma or emphysema or so forth or people who are particularly allergic to the content of the smoke to be able to get to places that have clean air through filtering. So that is essential. And this bill incorporates the Smoke-Ready Communities Program based on the Smoke and Heat Ready Communities Act that I introduced before. It gives communities the tools and the resources to prepare for wildfire smoke and unhealthy air. They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is a pretty good foundation for a bill--a bill, the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act, that will give our communities the tools they need to prepare for wildfires and smoke pollution, and I would encourage that we adopt this bill today. I yield to one of my colleagues. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California. Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, colleagues, I am proud to join our colleagues from Utah and Oregon in bringing up this bill. I can't overstate both the importance and the urgency of the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act, which is a result of more than a year of bipartisan negotiations and a measure that recently passed unanimously out of the Environment and Public Works Committee. As my colleague from Oregon has begun to paint the picture, Western States--including Oregon, California, and others--are confronting a crisis of wildfires that aren't just growing larger and larger every year but more destructive every year and emitting massive amounts of toxic smoke. Now, there is no silver bullet for solving the wildfire crisis, but we know that prescribed fires--experience tells us and the data tells us that prescribed fires are the most effective tools in reducing hazardous fuels and preventing catastrophic wildfires. Will they continue to happen--fires? Yes, but if we can prevent them, that is ideal or at least let's mitigate their size, their scope, and the damage that they cause however we can. But the problem that brings us to this measure is that while the EPA regulations have allowed prescribed fires to qualify as exceptional events since 2016, the Agency has never actually approved one, leaving States worried that using this critical tool--this provenly effective tool--to protect communities could jeopardize their air quality goals. By trying to do good and prevent fires or mitigate fires from a public safety standpoint, you are penalized on the air quality side of things. So this bill creates a narrow, targeted pathway specifically for prescribed fires while preserving existing air quality standards for other exceptional events. I want to thank my colleagues from Utah and Oregon for their partnership in this important bill, and kudos to Chairwoman Capito and Ranking Member Whitehouse on the committee who helped craft this measure as well. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah. Mr. CURTIS. Mr. President, I, too, would like to give my colleagues a shout-out. Senator Padilla and Senator Merkley, thank you for being down here on the floor with me for this first UC of my Senate career. More importantly, thank you for your work on this bill. And a shout-out to our colleagues. We share this commonality of Western State, and it is no secret that just as I speak today, Utah is in the midst of one of our worst fire seasons--over 1,200 fires over half a million acres in our State. And with these fires come devastating floods and other consequences. And every day the threat to our communities and our lands grows substantially more severe. That is why it makes sense to not leave a critical tool like these controlled burns off the table. You both have described how well these prescribed burns help us channel and focus these forest fires. The data, as presented to me by the Forest Service, is clear: Wildfire prevention and containment are more successful in areas where prescribed burns took place. Yet States that proactively use prescribed burns can face regulatory consequences for the temporary emissions created by the very work that prevents far greater emissions in our environment. Our bill, the Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act, provides States with greater certainty by ensuring that prescribed fires and other wildfire mitigation activities can be treated as exceptional events under the Clean Air Act. The people of Utah are not looking for an emissions loophole. They are looking to protect their families, communities, and land. This is about recognizing that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We have alluded to it today, all of us have. This bill passed through our Environment and Public Works Committee 19 to 0. This is exactly what people back home want us to do, to work up these bipartisan solutions. This reflects something I think we can all agree on: States should not be punished for taking responsible action to prevent catastrophic wildfires. I appreciate our chairman and ranking member--once again, Senators Merkley, Padilla, also Senators Boozman, Kelly. Thank you for your work on this legislation. I also urge my House colleagues to support WEPA and help us get this commonsense legislation across the finish line. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 620, S. 5045. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title. The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows: A bill (S. 5045) to amend the Clean Air Act to modify the handling of air quality monitoring with respect to prescribed fires, and for other purposes. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill which was reported from the Committee on Environment and Public Works. Mr. CURTIS. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without ob

Referenced legislation: SRES852, SRES852, SRES921, S5045, S5589