KHTS
By. Jade Aubuchon

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Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, offered a series of amendments to improve wildfire detection and prevention during a House Science, Space and Technology Full Committee Markup earlier this week.

During the hearing, Garcia proposed an amendment to address “California’s frequent and reckless Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS)” by clarifying language that would improve the balance between reducing wildfires and ensuring access to power, according to a statement from Garcia’s office.

“PSPS should have been a band-aid while the state of California fortified risky power lines to permanently address the threat that sparking posed,” Garcia said during the markup. “Unfortunately, it’s become effectively a crutch for utility companies and now is an all too routine part of life in California with no end in sight.”

The amendment is expected to empower states to make power shut off protocols a measure of last resort instead of a first resort, according to Garcia.

“A better balance must be struck that effectively reduces the risk of wildfires from sparking while also ensuring that residents have continual access to the power that they pay for,” Garcia said.

During the hearing, he also advocated for the need to modernize federal forest management policies by allowing federal land managers to utilize active forest management practices like prescribed burns and brush clearings, according to Garcia’s office.

“If we really want to reduce the number and intensity of wildfires in the West, we must encourage scientific and technological advancements that create or improve actionable land management decisions,” Garcia said. “We must also cut the red tape that is currently preventing land managers from actually implementing the forest management decisions that ultimately reduce the number of fires and reduce the fuel that feeds fires once they are started.”

Earlier this year, Garcia introduced the PROTECT Act, which allows for more flexibility for federal land managers to utilize active forest management methods, like prescribed burns, to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, according to the act.

Garcia also introduced the bipartisan, bicameral FIRE Act, which would improve wildfire detection and forecasting and enable quick dissemination of critical information to land managers and firefighters to improve efforts to combat wildfires before they spread to catastrophic levels, according to Garcia.

Garcia remains committed to improving wildfire detection capabilities, addressing the threat PSPS poses to Californians and improving federal forest management practices, according to Garcia’s office.

To read more about Garcia’s efforts to prepare for and prevent wildfires, click here.