The haze from Canadian wildfires that swallowed up much of the northeast U.S. on Thursday fueled a partisan clash in Washington over what started the fires.

Democrats say the fires raging in Quebec and Nova Scotia — producing code red and purple air advisories from Boston to Washington — is 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,” said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, about his party’s tax-and-climate spending law. “But both parties have an obligation to do more.”

Wildfires are not started by climate change. Some are naturally occurring but the overwhelming majority — roughly 85% — are started by humans either on purpose or by accident, according to the National Park Services. However, warming temperatures and increased drought from climate change do fuel more aggressive and prolonged burns.

At a Senate hearing Thursday on 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.”

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

Those who were particularly susceptible to unhealthy air conditions, such as those who were younger, older or have respiratory issues, were advised to stay indoors and away from the orange apocalyptic clouds that engulfed some areas. Flights were delayed and outdoor activities like sporting events were canceled in cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington.

In the nation’s capital, the roads were unusually clear Thursday as many stayed home and about half the people on the streets wore their 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 closing of the National Zoo, a popular tourist attraction in Washington. Zoo officials said they were taking the action “for the safety of our animals, our staff and our guests.”

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

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a briefing Thursday 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 experienced a “higher than usual” number of asthma-related visits to the emergency room, city Health Department spokesperson Pedro Frisneda said Thursday, estimating they were in the “low hundreds.”

The city’s public schools announced classes would be remote Friday, a decision mostly affecting high schoolers as pupils in most other grades already had a scheduled day off.

What’s more, the more than 400 blazes burning across Canada have left 20,000 people displaced. The U.S. sent more than 600 firefighters and equipment to Canada. Other countries also are helping.

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

Back at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, officials from the Interior Department, USDA Forest Service and the Wyoming State Forestry Division said it’s not an either-or scenario of climate change vs. forest management. They said combating climate change and improving forest management are both good ideas.

Forest management includes controlled burns and the thinning of vegetation such as smaller trees and brush that can act as fuel for wildfires.
The officials also emphasized that the best way to put out flames once they start 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 USDA Forest Service, said Washington shelled out north of $470 million in 2021 hiring state and private firefighters to battle wildfires because there are too few federal firefighters.

Jeffrey Rupert, director of the Office of Wildland Fire at the Interior Department, 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, a New Mexico Democrat at the hearing, told The Washington Times that the preponderance of the testimony showed that an all-of-the-above solution is needed.

“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,” said the senator.

Still, the politics of the situation played out front and center in Washington.

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 was scheduled before the smoke billowing into the U.S., that there are environmental groups in Montana “who 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 blanketing 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.”

• The article includes wire service reports.

• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.