Gabe Evans: “One exceptional event waiver has been approved, clearly not workable. As was just discussed, bipartisan Governors--two…”

“One exceptional event waiver has been approved, clearly not workable. As was just discussed, bipartisan Governors--two Democrats from Colorado and Arizona, and two Republicans from Utah and Wyoming--wrote a letter in 2024 saying that this exceptional event process, as it is currently written under the Clean Air Act, is not workable. Madam Speaker, while I greatly appreciate references to a 2016 letter, this is a problem that was still impacting folks in 2024, prompting a bipartisan outcry from Western Governors on both sides of the aisle to modernize the exceptional events waiver--the same thing from members of the delegation from California. In a letter in June 2023, 25 Members signed a letter saying that the exceptional events waiver is not workable, asking for these updates and for modernization. That is borne out by the data and by the science, which say that we have only had one exceptional events waiver approved. The science is clear. The data is clear. The environment is crying out for reducing emissions through better forest management and wildfire prevention, which, as we have heard, reduces emissions anywhere on a scale from 1 to 6 to 1 to 10. If you do the controlled burns and the mitigation now, you have fewer emissions from damaging wildfires in the future. Madam Speaker, I urge an `aye` vote.”