Is there anything the White House can do to address air quality?

The White House mobilized resources to combat wildfires and improve air quality
Climate adviser: The White House is assisting Canada in combating the wildfires
Ali Zaidi: It's urgent that we address climate change for long-term solutions

Updated: Jun 8, 2023 / 06:06 PM CDT

(NewsNation) — The poor air quality in several major U.S. cities, caused by raging Canadian wildfires and posing a significant health risk to many Americans, was top of mind, according to President Joe Biden. But is there anything that the White House can do to address it immediately?

Ali Zaidi, the national climate adviser to Biden, joined “The Hill on NewsNation” to discuss the administration’s efforts to improve air quality.

Zaidi said one of the immediate actions taken by the White House is to assist Canada in combating the wildfires that are causing the widespread smoke.

“That’s why the president has deployed both ground and aerial resources to help fight the fires,” Zaidi said. “He has activated the National Interagency Fire Center to be supportive to our neighbors as they take on that challenge.

On the domestic front, Zaidi said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is being mobilized to utilize air sensors and provide accurate and up-to-date information to vulnerable communities across the nation.

“We’re making sure that our CDC is working with state and local governments to get resources in their hands, whether it’s bottled water, or masks or other things that can help mitigate the impact of this blanket of smoke,” he said.

However, Zaidi emphasized it is crucial to address the root cause of this air quality crisis.

“We’ve got to get after the root cause of this crisis,” he said. “And that is the changing climate.”

Zaidi said there is a need to combat climate change to prevent such occurrences from becoming more frequent and severe. While immediate action can alleviate the immediate effects, a comprehensive approach to tackling climate change is necessary for long-term solutions, Zaidi said.

“In the Inflation Reduction Act, we invested, again, an incredible amount and are making sure that we’re boosting the health of our forests, and those forest systems,” Zaidi said. “But we’ve got to have cleaner energy. We’ve got to have cleaner cars. We’ve got to clean up our act so that this problem does not get worse. Because it’s bad for our economy, it’s bad for our public health, and it’s bad for our environment.”

Watch the full interview with Ali Zaidi in the video player at the top of the page.