Dangerously smoky skies engulf Washington lawmakers

The haze from Canadian wildfires that shrouded much of the northeastern U.S. on Thursday fueled a partisan clash in Washington over the cause of the fires.

As code red and purple air quality advisories stretched from Boston to Washington, Democrats used smoke from the fires in Quebec and Nova Scotia as an I-told-you-so moment about climate change.

“That’s why Democrats passed the largest package of clean energy investments in American history last year, through the Inflation Reduction Act,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said about his party’s tax and climate spending law. “But both parties have an obligation to do more.”

Climate change does not start wildfires. Some ignite naturally, but the overwhelming majority — roughly 85% — are started by humans either on purpose or by accident, the National Park Service said. Higher temperatures and increased drought from climate change do fuel more aggressive and prolonged burns.

At a Senate hearing Thursday about the wildfire threat, Republicans maintained that the primary culprit for the rising intensity and frequency of wildfires in the U.S. is Washington’s red tape hindering fire prevention on federal lands.

“Unfortunately, this is what happens when you have more lawyers in the forest crawling around versus firefighters, and when your forests aren’t managed properly,” said Sen. Steve Daines, Montana Republican. “Washington bureaucrats and the court system in our country continue to give us policies that can result in air quality like this.”

The blame game is a summer ritual in Washington. The difference this time is that the blazes are in Canada, which is on pace for its worst wildfire season on record. Fires have burned nearly 9 million acres, roughly 2.5 million more than Canada’s yearly average.

Those particularly susceptible to unhealthy air conditions, such as children, the elderly and those with respiratory issues, were advised to stay indoors and away from the orange apocalyptic clouds in some areas. Flights were delayed, and sporting events and other outdoor activities were canceled in cities such as New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

In the nation’s capital, the roads were unusually clear Thursday as many stayed home. About half the people on the streets wore pandemic-era masks. The city government canceled all outdoor activities at public schools and senior centers, closed all public parks, suspended work by city road construction and paving crews, and delayed trash collection.

The poor air quality also forced the closure of the National Zoo, a popular tourist attraction in Washington. Zoo officials said they were looking out “for the safety of our animals, our staff and our guests.”

In suburban Philadelphia, officials set up an emergency shelter so people living outside could take refuge from the haze.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, said at a briefing in Albany that “this continues to be a public health crisis,” with the worst air quality since at least the 1960s.

“This is not over. We might get a little respite, but I don’t want people to let down their guard and become complacent about this because we have to be prepared for the winds to shift. This is the unknown,” Ms. Hochul said.

New York City reported an unusually high number of asthma-related visits to emergency rooms, said Pedro Frisneda, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He estimated that the number Thursday was in the “low hundreds.”

The city’s public schools announced that Friday classes would be remote. The decision affects high school students the most. A day off already had been scheduled for most other grades.

More than 400 blazes across Canada have displaced 20,000 people. The U.S. sent more than 600 firefighters and equipment to Canada. Other countries also are helping.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke by phone Wednesday with President Biden. Mr. Trudeau’s office said the prime minister thanked Mr. Biden for his support and that both leaders “acknowledged the need to work together to address the devastating impacts of climate change.”

At the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, officials from the Interior Department, the Department of Agriculture Forest Service and the Wyoming State Forestry Division said the scenario is not a clash of climate change versus forest management. They said both ideas are good.

Forest management includes controlled burns and the thinning of vegetation such as smaller trees and brush that can fuel wildfires.

The officials emphasized that the best way to extinguish flames is to allocate more resources for federal firefighters to improve pay, career advancement and mental health services.

Jaelith Hall-Rivera, deputy chief of state, private and tribal forestry at the Forest Service, said Washington shelled out more than $470 million in 2021 to hire state and private firefighters because of an inadequate number of federal firefighters.

Jeffery Rupert, director of the Interior Department’s office of wildland fire, said in written testimony that “climate change continues to play an oversized role in the extreme fire weather that we are experiencing across the nation,” leading to “larger and more intense wildfires.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich, New Mexico Democrat, told The Washington Times that the preponderance of the testimony showed the necessity of an all-of-the-above solution.

“The witnesses don’t always play by the same political rules as the members, so that gives you a pretty good idea of where the reality on the ground is,” the senator said.

Still, politics played out front and center.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday that the hazardous air quality was “yet another alarming example of the ways in which the climate crisis is disturbing our lives and our communities.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat and member of the far-left “Squad,” used the wildfires to promote her Green New Deal climate proposal.

“We must adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure, healthcare, etc ASAP to prepare for what’s to come and catch up to what is already here. #GreenNewDeal,” she tweeted.

Mr. Daines said during the hearing, which had been scheduled before the smoke billowed into the U.S., that environmental groups in Montana “litigate and stop forest treatment projects with a sympathetic judge or two.”

“This is not about trying to make some ideological points,” he said. 

Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the committee, said the haze in East Coast cities was a “sobering reminder” of the bureaucracy that kneecaps wildfire prevention on federal lands.

“Our forests are overgrown and are unhealthy. This is due to decades of misguided policies, inducing a hands-off approach to management and associated declines in sawmill infrastructure,” Mr. Barrasso said. “Too often, such progress is stopped by regulatory red tape, by harmful litigation that prevents critical fire mitigation projects from moving forward.”