EPA's proposed restrictions on emissions from wood-burning stoves draws sharp rural criticism

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed restrictions on emissions from wood-burning stoves are being criticized in rural areas, where residents are more likely to rely on the stoves for heat and water, Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. Rural areas burn twice as much wood for heat as urban areas, according to a report by George Mason University. (Flickr photo by Ed Suominen)

"The proposed rule will lower the emissions standard for all new woodstoves to 4.5 grams per hour of operations, according to Chimney Sweep News," Marema writes "The standard is currently 7.5 grams per hours for stoves without catalytic converters and 4.1 for catalytic stoves. The new standard will not differentiate between the two types of stoves. Five to eight years after the new rule is implemented, the standard would drop to 1.3 grams per hour."

Stonehill College economics professor Sean Mulholland wrote in an opinion piece in U.S. News and World Report that "the claim that the tighter standards will improve human health doesn’t take into account that most wood for heat gets burned in rural areas. Most of the emissions reductions will take place in rural areas with low population densities. The rule overestimates total health benefits realized by averaging these reductions across all U.S. residents. So a reduction in particulates in the rural community of Forest City, Maine, has the same estimated value as a reduction in the densely-populated urban city of Oakland, Calif.”

Jack Goldman, president and CEO of the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, said at an EPA hearing, “This is an industry populated overwhelmingly by small businesses. All but a handful of our manufacturers qualify as a small business. Because our industry’s health is very closely tied to new home building and remodeling, these businesses are just beginning to emerge from a horrendous recession. They are in no position to invest the relatively huge amounts that this proposal will require for research, testing, certification and retooling plants.”

In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota wrote: “The rule would have a disproportionate impact on South Dakota families who rely on wood stoves to heat their homes.  . . . With the recent propane shortage throughout South Dakota and many areas of the country, the last thing the EPA should be doing is making it harder and more expensive for families to heat their homes.”

But advocates say new rules will be good for consumers. John Ackerly, president of the Alliance for Green Heat, wrote on the group’s Facebook page: “Few people argue that the 1988 regulations were bad for consumers, and in five years, few will argue that these were. Cleaner, higher efficiency appliances will end up selling much better, even if they are a little more expensive, because fuel savings in any appliance always outweigh a bump in purchase price.” (Read more)