Congressman Gabe Evans' FIRE Act Passes Through Energy and Commerce Committee, Heads to the House Floor.

WASHINGTON- Today, Reps Gabe Evans' (CO-08) and Adam Gray's (CA-13) bipartisan Fire Improvement and Reforming Exceptional Events (FIRE) Act, H.R. 6387passed through the Energy and Commerce committee. The bill will ensure that states are not punished for the smoke and emissions they cannot control, while still maintaining strong environmental protections.

The FIRE Act works to provide clarity and predictability for air quality planning, reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens on manufacturers and communities, and reward proactive wildfire mitigation that protects public health and improves air quality for future generations.

"A leading reason for the affordability crisis facing Coloradans is red tape around air quality permitting. When the economy is strangled under the weight of costly, poorly designed ozone attainment standards, jobs are lost, prices spike, and financial stress increases negative health outcomes. Clean air is important to everyone, but Colorado jobs should not be penalized for emissions outside of their control - whether it's Canadian wildfires or Chinese pollution.

My bill, the FIRE Act, is a common-sense solution that will drive down costs for working families in Colorado by clarifying that Clean Air Act benchmarks should not be used to punish jobs and hamstring the economy for things like prescribed burns or out-of-state wildfire smoke."- Congressman Gabe Evans

"This bipartisan bill would protect communities in the Central Valley from strict air quality regulations following prescribed burns or wildfire pollution. I commend the Energy and Commerce Committee for quick passage of the FIRE Act and call on Speaker Johnson to bring this bill to the Floor for a vote." - Congressman Adam Gray (CA-13)

Background:

For years, areas along the Front Range of Colorado have consistently struggled to meet ozone attainment levels set by the federal Clean Air Act.

The resulting red tape around air quality permitting and the regulations that Colorado's ruling Democrats slap onto the industry, the economy and consumers, are a leading cause of the affordability crisis that working families in Colorado District 8 are facing - and what has marked Colorado the sixthmost heavily regulated state in the country. When the economy is strangled under the weight of costly and poorly designed ozone attainment standards, jobs are lost, prices spike, and financial stress increases negative mental and physical health outcomes.

When families and jobs are penalized for emissions outside of their control, it leads to unemployment, higher costs which both fail to promote healthy living standards and instead promotes poverty.

Regulation under the Clean Air Act has resulted in Colorado imposing reformulated gasoline mandates on drivers. In the summertime, commuters across the state are forced to buy reformulated gas that's typically 40 cents more expensive per gallon, despite the so-called "mitigation effort" producing negligible results - less than 1 part-per-billion in actually reducing ozone levels.

In fact, the Democrat appointed chair of the Denver regional air quality council admitted that we could, "ban oil and gas in Colorado and still not meet summertime ozone standards."

In Colorado only 29% of the ozone and air pollution along the Front Range originates from human activity in Colorado. The other 71% percent of the air pollution is from sources like wildfires, pollution from communist China, and naturally occurring atmospheric events.

The FIRE Act was introduced on December 3, 2025 and passedthrough the Energy and Commerce, Environment Subcommittee on December 11, 2025.

WatchCongressman Evans speak in favor of the passage of his bipartisan FIRE Act during the Energy and Commerce full committee markup on January 21, 2026.

The legislation has received broad support from stakeholders across Colorado and the nation. To read more from those who have endorsed, please read our WTAS release.