One State is Pushing Back Against the Obama Administration’s Proposal To Ban Wood Stoves

24 Feb, 2014 by John Hawkins

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There are a lot of Americans who rely on wood burning stoves to keep warm in the winter. When Barack Obama’s EPA arrogantly moves to make every wood burning stove in America illegal, he’s basically saying to those people, “You can go ahead and freeze for all I care.” Well, one state is pushing back against the Obama administration ban on wood stoves.

A federal proposal to clean up the smoke wafting from wood-burning stoves has sparked a backlash from some rural residents, lawmakers and manufacturers who fear it could close the damper on one of the oldest ways of warming homes on cold winter days.

Proposed regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would significantly reduce the amount of particle pollution allowed from the smokestacks of new residential wood-powered heaters.

…Some manufacturers contend the EPA’s proposed standards are so stringent that the higher production costs would either force them out of business or raise prices so high that many consumers could no longer afford their products.

“There’s not a stove in the United States that can pass the test right now – this is the death knoll of any wood burning,” Reg Kelly, the founder of Earth Outdoor Furnaces in Mountain Grove, told Missouri lawmakers during a recent hearing.

More than three dozen Missouri lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill that would symbolically fight back against the EPA by declaring that “All Missourians have a right to heat their homes and businesses using wood-burning furnaces, stoves, fireplaces and heaters.”

This past week, a Missouri House committee endorsed a revised measure that proposes to ban state environmental officials from regulating residential wood heaters unless authorized by the Legislature.

Missouri appears to be one the first states to introduce legislation in response to the proposed EPA regulations. But concerns over wood-stove pollution and regulations also have been simmering in other states, including Utah and Alaska.

…”What they’re doing is unnecessary, and it comes against our American values and our traditions,” said Rep. Tim Remole, a Republican who has a wood stove at his rural Missouri home.

There are about 12 million wood stoves in U.S. homes, including about 9 million that are less than half as efficient as the newer stoves, according to the EPA. The agency’s proposed rules would not affect stoves already in homes.

Most people who own wood stoves have other means of heat, such as electric or gas furnaces. But about 2 percent U.S. homes rely on wood as their primary heating source – a figure that has been rising over the past decade.

Darwin Woods, who owns a farm near the small central Missouri town of Clark, said his 12-year-old outdoor wood stove heats both his home and water. Though he wouldn’t be forced to upgrade the stove, Woods views the proposed EPA rule as an intrusion.

“It’s just another way for them to control my life and lifestyle and basically force me to pay more for just survival,” Woods said.

Missouri should follow through with that legislation and other states should follow its lead. Barack Obama and the EPA are out of control and it’s time for the states to push back.

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