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“Smoke, Screened” is an investigative series by The California Newsroom, MuckRock and the Guardian on the large environmental impact of a little-noticed deregulatory tool found in the Clean Air Act. The provision in the Clean Air Act has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to strike pollution from clean air tallies in more than 70 counties, enabling local regulators to claim the air was cleaner than it really was for more than 21 million Americans. The loophole allows regulators to forgive pollution, and avoid costly cleanup work, caused by “natural” or “uncontrollable” events, including wildfires.

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What is the exceptional events rule? The loophole letting U.S. regulators wipe air pollution from the record

by Andrew Witherspoon, Emily Zentner, Dillon Bergin and Molly Peterson

October 16, 2023

First pushed through by the Republican senator and climate denier Jim Inhofe, the rule has become a “regulatory escape hatch” for states that want to meet federal air-quality standards.

Smoke, Screened: How a little-known pollution rule keeps the air dirty for millions of Americans