Summary#
This bill, titled the Clean Air and Economic Advancement Reform Act (CLEAR Act), changes how the Clean Air Act works. Major changes in the bill include:
- EPA review cycle for national ambient air quality standards changed from every 5 years to every 10 years.
- The EPA Administrator may consider how likely a standard is to be achieved as a secondary factor when setting or revising primary standards.
- States are given at least one year after an EPA finding or disapproval to submit a corrective plan, and if a State submits such a plan, the EPA may take up to 3 years to issue a Federal Implementation Plan (FIP) instead of the usual 2 years.
- Contingency measures are not required for ozone nonattainment areas classified as "Extreme."
- Ozone and particulate matter plan rules are amended to require consideration of "economic feasibility" alongside technological achievability in several plan provisions.
- The definition and handling of "exceptional events" is expanded to explicitly include certain actions to mitigate wildfire risk (for example, prescribed fires done under State-approved practices). The bill adds processes for regional analysis, a public tracking website for petitions, and updates timelines for related procedures.
- A new section (179C) makes certain sanctions or fees inapplicable when a State shows that emissions beyond the State's control (including emissions from outside the area, exceptional events, or some mobile-source emissions) caused the deficiency. States must renew that demonstration at least every 5 years. The bill says this does not remove other obligations to try to attain standards.
- The Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) would include three State air agency representatives (instead of one), chosen to ensure geographic diversity. The committee would also assess and advise on possible adverse public health, welfare, social, economic, or energy effects of strategies to meet standards.
What it means for you#
- State air agencies get more time and explicit flexibility to respond to EPA findings and to consider economic feasibility when designing plans.
- Areas classified as extreme for ozone will not be required by this bill to have certain contingency measures under section 172(c)(9).
- Prescribed fires and similar wildfire-risk reduction actions can be treated in petitions as "actions to mitigate wildfire risk" and may be excluded from air quality determinations if they meet the bill's criteria and petition process.
- The EPA must provide a public website with status updates on exceptional event and wildfire-mitigation petitions and may do regional modeling when multiple States request it.
- The EPA advisory committee will include more State representatives and must consider non-air-quality effects (for example economic or energy effects) when giving advice.
Expenses#
No publicly available information on costs or savings. The bill text does not include an estimate of federal or State budgetary effects.
Proponents' View#
The bill text states its purpose is to "facilitate State implementation of national ambient air quality standards." Provisions in the text increase time for State responses, add consideration of economic feasibility and attainability, expand exceptional-event rules to include wildfire-mitigation actions, and change CASAC composition and advice requirements.
Opponents' View#
No publicly available information on opponents' views in the bill text or accompanying metadata.