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The House has passed three bills rightsizing emissions limits and environmental reviews under the Clean Air Act (E&E News, subscription; Bloomberg, subscription).

• The NAM, which publicly urged Congress to advance these measures, cheered at the news and will advocate for swift passage in the Senate.

The bills: As we wrote before the vote, the three measures are:

• The FIRE Act, which would ensure that wildfire mitigation efforts are not held against a state when its nonattainment status is determined, as well as require the Environmental Protection Agency to modernize its approach to these mitigation efforts and those of other exceptional events;
• The RED Tape Act, which would remove the mandate that the EPA review a project already subject to National Environmental Policy Act review; and
• The FENCES Act, which would prevent emissions coming from outside the U.S. to be used in calculations that decide whether a permit can be issued.

The last word: Given that America’s broken permitting system costs manufacturers at least $7.9 billion per year , expanding the American economy requires “responsible and commonsense modernizations to the Clean Air Act as part of comprehensive permitting reform efforts in Congress,” the NAM emphasized to Congress ahead of the vote.

NAM in the news: Bloomberg (cited above) highlighted the NAM’s support for the FIRE Act.