Congress chooses to encourage more wild fires

http://www.vox.com/2014/5/19/5730870/wildfires-getting-worse-congress-unprepared

Updated by Brad Plumer on May 19, 2014

The broad view among experts is that wildfires in the western United States will keep getting more destructive in the years ahead. That's partly because global warming will make the fire season worse, and partly because more people are living in fire-prone

Yet every year Congress seems totally unprepared for this fact.

This year, the federal government is predicting that its $1.4 billion fire suppression budget will prove inadequate for the upcoming fire season, which is expected to be especially bad given the drought in California. (The massive wildfire near San Diego last week came weeks before fire season typically gets underway.)

As a result, the US Forest Service and Department of Interior expect they'll have to pull $470 million from other accounts — including programs that are supposed to help prevent fires in the first place. That, in turn, could make future wildfires even worse.

If those forecasts hold up, this will be the 7th time in the last 12 years that Congress hasn't adequately funded federal firefighting programs. Since 2002, the Department of Agriculture, which runs the Forest Service, has had to pull at least $2.8 billion from other programs in order to fight fires — without always getting fully reimbursed by Congress. And the problem is only likely to get worse in the years ahead.