Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Senator Curtis, John R. [R-UT]
Introduced
Summary
The Wildfire Emissions Prevention Act of 2025 would change how air monitoring treats smoke from planned burns. It would treat prescribed fires like exceptional events for air-quality monitoring and speed EPA rule changes to handle that data.
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- Families and communities: Smoke from planned, controlled burns would be eligible to be treated like natural exceptional events in air-monitoring data, which can affect local attainment classifications and compliance reviews.
- State and Tribal agencies and foresters: States would generally designate prescribed fires as exceptional events unless the EPA adopts a different determination. The bill requires EPA to publish revised review rules within 270 days and shortens the interim review window to 180 days.
- Federal coordination: The EPA Administrator would lead cross-jurisdiction analyses and coordinate regional, national, or international demonstrations when smoke affects multiple States or Tribal areas.
- Fire managers and land stewards: The bill defines “prescribed fire” and normalizes considering planned ignitions in monitoring decisions, which could make using controlled burns for land management easier to account for in regulatory data.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
States get new rules for planned burns
If enacted, the bill would let States treat planned prescribed fires as 'exceptional events' for air quality data. It would define 'prescribed fire' as a planned ignition under applicable laws and rules. State determinations would control at first, but EPA could later review and overturn them under new rules. EPA would have to publish revised review rules within 270 days and finish interim actions in 180 days. EPA would also lead regional or multistate demonstrations when fires or events cross borders at the request of multiple agencies.
No retroactive emissions reclassification for stationary sources
If enacted, the bill would stop emissions that were not an exceptional event the day before enactment from becoming one after enactment. It would use the stationary source definition in 40 C.F.R. 51.491 as of the enactment date. This would protect owners and operators from retroactive reclassification by regulators.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Curtis, John R. [R-UT]
UT • R
Cosponsors
Sen. Lummis, Cynthia M. [R-WY]
WY • R
Sponsored 10/23/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov