East Coast Wildfire Experience Shows Limits of Air Regulations

Intense wildfire smoke billowed over the Canadian border into the eastern US last week, spotlighting a harmful pollution problem with no regulatory solution.

The haze that blanketed the eastern US caused panic in New York and Washington, cities that aren’t used to widespread air quality alerts that deem the air unfit to breathe.

New York City briefly topped the list as the city with the worst air quality in the world, triggering Code Maroon alerts indicating “hazardous” levels of pollution.

But what many viewed as an exceptional event is actually part of an unregulated pollution issue, leaving states and private ...