The EPA cracked down on wood burning stoves. Estimated 80% will no longer be permitted and some states or smaller government begin demanding more stringent regs for stoves/fireplaces. EPA Bans Most Wood-Burning Stoves Written by: Tara Dodrill Politics October 2, 2013 401 Comments Wood-burning stoves offer cheap warmth to many [especially rural] Americans on tight budgets but the tried-and-true heating devices now are under attack by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has banned the production and sale of the types of stoves used by about 80 percent of such stoves. The regulations limit the amount of “airborne fine-particle matter” to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The current EPA regulations allow for 15 micrograms in the same amount of air space. Most of the wood stoves currently nestled inside cabins and homes from coast-to-coast don’t meet the new environmental standard. The EPA launched a “Burn Wise” website to help convince the public that the new regulations were needed. Trading in an old stove for a newer stove isn’t allowed. “Replacing an older stove with a cleaner-burning stove will not improve air quality if the older stove is reused somewhere else,” the website says. “For this reason, wood stove change out programs usually require older stoves to be destroyed and recycled as scrap metal, or rendered inoperable.” In some areas of the country, local governments have gone further than the EPA and banned not just the sale of such stoves, but the usage of old stoves – and even the usage of fireplaces. That means that even if you still have a stove or a fireplace, you can’t burn it for fear of a fine. Puget Sound, Washington, is one such location. I have family in Kentucky where there are enough wood burners to deserve the state to keep stats on them. Here is a link that shows how many Kentuckians use this cheap heat in the state. What will they do if they cannot afford the new state of the art cleaner wood stoves? What will the EPA do to THEM if they dont comply? I believe that at least some of these hapless polluters will be visited by the EPAs well known SWAT teams. Kentucky has already found them and has a list. zipatlas/us/ky/city-comparison/percentage-households-wood-heating.htm
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 13:43:00 +0000
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