From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
In recent summers, Gallatin Valley residents have sometimes had to endure poor air quality from wildfire smoke, so a Bozeman legislator wants Montana to be able to fine the federal government for that.
In a Natural Resources Committee hearing this week, Rep. Tom Burnett, R-Bozeman, presented House Bill 340, which would require the Department of Environmental Quality “to fine the federal government for fires on certain federal lands that contribute to exceedance of air quality standards.”
Burnett provided the committee a graphic of the smoke from wildfires in 2012 and the readings from the 11 DEQ monitoring stations in Montana, most of which registered unhealthy air quality on various days.
“Smoke pollution compromises public health. Under this bill, the DEQ determines whether mismanaged federal lands are responsible for any part of breaching of the air standard. If they are, the federal government is corrected in the same way an industrial polluter would be,” Burnett said at the Wednesday hearing. “Federal land managers should manage the forests so it does not cause air pollution.”…
The attached editorial from their local newspaper tells what the Press thinks about these idiot proposals: “preening and prancing”.
http://www.fairfieldsuntimes.com/opinion/article_f93148a4-b0ab-11e4-a9de-cbdab8771f3a.html?mode=story
Maybe a shift in thought towards a more critical look at how air pollution regulation can work against the effort to restore healthy ecosystems? An interesting read on how lawmakers treat smoke from modern wildland fire (a result of human intervention) as “natural” while regulating smoke from prescribed fire as “unnatural”. https://www.snre.arizona.edu/sites/snre.arizona.edu/files/Engel_Wildfire_Policy_ELQ-1.pdf
I would assume this is a passive aggressive move to make the government land management agencies seem inept at their professions (they aren’t perfect, but c’mon) to make a push for state or private control of federal lands.
Probably a small, rogue, ignorant bunch that supports the idea, but obviously, they get more voters out than the sensible, rational crowd.
We as a society are so out of touch with reality. The inter- mountain west was shrouded in a smokey haze for months every year for millennia.
It seems to me that our biggest fault as a society is that so few of take the time & effort to vote, and those that do vote elect such wacko wing-nuts to office. The “I hate government” philosophy is on full display in this piece of proposed legislation.
Where’s that “Like” button?
“Like” the proposed bill, or the comments?
Your comment, specifically.
OMG!
Fining Feds for smoke??
Well, hell, with that line of thinking, let’s fine everyone that touches one off to include every summertime thunderstorm……..
Blame the folks who vote these folks in who can buy their way into States and Federal lawmaking…….a SURE no win situation! !!
Will the bill exempt locoweed smoke in the legislature?
What if the fire is on state land or private is the state going fine themselves?
This is about as stupid as things get.
Is this a joke?
I’m speechless as to how idiotic this is.
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131217081420/cardfight/images/8/8a/Triple_facepalm.png
There are times, especially for the 90 days every 2 years when the Legislature is in session, that I’m not-so-proud to be a Montanan: this clown reinforces that feeling.
Don’t worry Dick, this has nothing to do with Montana. We all have issues with the fools we choose to elect.
My electeds are responsible for Public Law 107-203, and can’t seem to figure out why changing our State Fire Mobilization Act to an All Risk System is a good thing.
More information about the bill that was sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell and U.S. Representative Doc Hastings, which became Public Law 107-203 in 2002.
My thoughts exactly, Dick. Regrettably this is not the legislature’s first stupid move.
And I wonder if Rep. Burnett has figured out who would fund the federal fine?