Sponsors (9)
Amends the Clean Air Act to lengthen NAAQS review intervals, ease some SIP/FIP timelines, expand data‑exclusion rules for wildfires and mitigation actions, and change CASAC composition and advisory duties.
The bill gives states more flexibility and procedural transparency to exclude wildfire and prescribed‑burn monitoring data and requires regional modeling, trading stronger immediate pollution accountability and incentives for emissions reductions for regulatory flexibility, potential public‑health delays, administrative costs, and legal uncertainty.
State air agencies and Governors can exclude air-monitoring data caused by wildfires or prescribed-risk-reduction actions, helping areas avoid nonattainment designations and related sanctions.
The bill requires a clear causal-link standard for excluded data, improving transparency and scientific rigor in how exclusions are justified.
EPA must publish and monthly-update a public website tracking petitions to exclude monitoring data, increasing transparency for communities, stakeholders, and governments.
Residents — especially in urban and rural communities — could face delayed regulatory actions and higher exposure to ozone/PM because expanded exclusions (including prescribed burns) make it easier to omit high‑pollution monitoring data.
Allowing exclusions to avoid sanctions reduces incentives for states to reduce emissions, potentially shifting cleanup responsibility and increasing long‑term pollution and associated health and economic costs for residents.
Narrowing exclusion language (for example, what counts as 'ordinarily occurring' stagnation or inversions) creates legal ambiguity likely to produce disputes and litigation, creating uncertainty for communities and regulators.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To amend the Clean Air Act to facilitate State implementation of national ambient air quality standards, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 27, 2025 by Buddy Carter · Last progress June 27, 2025
Makes targeted changes to the Clean Air Act that slow and reshape how national air quality standards (NAAQS) are reviewed and how state plans (SIPs) are enforced, and expands procedures for treating air monitoring data affected by wildfires or state wildfire‑mitigation actions. It lengthens the periodic review interval for NAAQS to 10 years, gives states more time to correct deficient SIPs before EPA imposes federal plans, changes certain ozone planning requirements, and creates new procedures and public reporting for petitions to exclude monitoring data tied to exceptional events or wildfire mitigation actions. It also increases state-agency representation on the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and directs CASAC to analyze likely adverse public health, welfare, social, economic, or energy effects of different compliance strategies before standards are set or revised. Overall, the bill reduces some statutory requirements and tightens procedural timelines in ways that generally lessen near-term federal enforcement pressure on states while formally recognizing and allowing exclusion of monitoring data tied to wildfire-mitigation activities and exceptional events. The changes will affect state air agencies, regulated industries, and communities concerned with air quality and wildfire smoke impacts.