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The price of jet fuel has nearly doubled since the war with Iran began, and that means taxpayers are likely to pay tens of millions more to fight wildfires this year. Austin Amestoy with Montana Public Radio reports.
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AUSTIN AMESTOY, BYLINE: Scenes like this are common across the West every summer.
BRETT L'ESPERANCE: So if you've ever seen "Planes 2," this is Dusty Crophopper.
AMESTOY: Brett L'Esperance is CEO of Dauntless Air and shared this video of a fleet of five of his company's single-engine air boss (ph) airplanes skimming the surface of a lake in Washington State.
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AMESTOY: They're filling their twin pontoons with water to drop on a nearby wildfire.
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AMESTOY: While the federal government is in charge of fighting most big wildfires, nearly all of the 500-or-so aircraft they use are privately owned by contractors like Dauntless. Last year, those planes burned through about $50 million worth of jet fuel. Every fire season is different, but if this year is the same as last season, that fuel bill would almost double to nearly $100 million. Willis Curdy, a retired firefighting aircraft pilot in Montana, says planes are often pushed to their limits.
WILLIS CURDY: This is not like getting into a 737 and going to 33,000 feet.
AMESTOY: Curdy spent nearly 40 years fighting wildfires and says the advanced maneuvers pilots use come at a high cost.
CURDY: You're asking for a lot of power, a lot of fuel consumption than you would if you're high, just gliding through the air.
AMESTOY: Most aerial firefighting companies have contracts that allow them to pass along higher fuel prices to U.S. taxpayers. The U.S. Forest Service, the federal agency in charge of fighting most big wildfires in America, declined NPR's request for an interview for this story. In emailed statements, officials say the Forest Service has budgeted $45 million for fire aviation fuel this year. That's 7 million less than it spent last year.
CURDY: I think that budget's going to change.
AMESTOY: Last year's fuel bill was slightly above the six-year average. This year, several Western states had very dry to record-dry winters, setting them up for a potentially catastrophic wildfire season. Brett L'Esperance, CEO of Dauntless Air, says he's less worried about fuel prices than the potential for shortages of jet fuel.
L'ESPERANCE: That's what's keeping me up at night.
AMESTOY: L'Esperance has his eye on oil imports heading into California, where most of the jet fuel used across the West is refined. California's energy commission is reporting the lowest stock of jet fuel at refineries in more than two years. The American Petroleum Institute says the state is more reliant on imported oil than the rest of the country - imports that have stalled due to the war in Iran.
L'ESPERANCE: When things get really, really busy and scary in that late June, July, August and September time frame, if we don't have the fuel to respond, we just can't respond.
AMESTOY: The U.S. Forest Service has not responded to our questions about whether it anticipates a shortage this year of fuel for firefighting aircraft, and the agency says it has flexibility to spend more if it needs to. It very well might - federal forecasters are predicting an active fire season in much of the West.
For NPR News, I'm Austin Amestoy in Missoula, Montana.
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