Thomas Massie to EPA: Leave our Wooden Stoves Alone!

Representative Ted Poe is not the only representative offering a pro-liberty amendment to the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriation Bill (HR 2822). Representative Thomas Massie will be offering an amendment to forbid the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from spending taxpayer funds to enforce their new regulations on wood burning stoves. Larry Bell at Forbes explains how this regulation will impact American families:

It seems that even wood isn’t green or renewable enough anymore.  The EPA has recently banned the production and sale of 80 percent of America’s current wood-burning stoves, the oldest heating method known to mankind and mainstay of rural homes and many of our nation’s poorest residents. The agency’s stringent one-size-fits-all rules apply equally to heavily air-polluted cities and far cleaner plus typically colder off-grid wilderness areas such as large regions of Alaska and the American West. While EPA’s most recent regulations aren’t altogether new, their impacts will nonetheless be severe.  Whereas restrictions had previously banned wood-burning stoves that didn’t limit fine airborne particulate emissions to 15 micrograms per cubic meter of air, the change will impose a maximum 12 microgram limit. To put this amount in context, EPA estimates that secondhand tobacco smoke in a closed car can expose a person to 3,000-4,000 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter. Most wood stoves that warm cabin and home residents from coast-to-coast can’t meet that standard. Older stoves that don’t cannot be traded in for updated types, but instead must be rendered inoperable, destroyed, or recycled as scrap metal. The impacts of EPA’s ruling will affect many families. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 survey statistics, 2.4 million American housing units (12 percent of all homes) burned wood as their primary heating fuel, compared with 7 percent that depended upon fuel oil. Local LOCM +% governments in some states have gone even further  than EPA, not only banning the sale of noncompliant stoves, but even their use as fireplaces. As a result, owners face fines for infractions. Puget Sound, Washington is one such location.   Montréal, Canada proposes to eliminate all fireplaces within its city limits.

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As a Washington Times editorial emphasized, the ban is of great concern to many families in cold remote off-grid locations. It noted, for example, that “Alaska’s 663,000 square miles is mostly forestland, offering residents and abundant source of affordable firewood. When county officials floated a plan to regulate the burning of wood, residents were understandably inflamed.”  Quoting Representative Tammie Wilson speaking to the Associated Press, the Times reported: “Everyone wants clean air. We just want to make sure that we can also heat our homes” Wilson continued: “Rather than fret over EPA’s computer – model – based warning about the dangers of inhaling soot from wood smoke, residents have more pressing concerns on their minds as the immediate risk of freezing when the mercury plunges.”

Larry Bell’s full article explains how “friendly” lawsuits filed by “environmental” groups and state(ists) Attorney Generals justify lose of our freedoms.  These lawsuits are setled by “consent degrees’ negotiated behind closed doors by environmental advocates” and/or the state(ist) Attorney Generals and the EPA. The EPA can then say they had no choice to impose these regulations cause they where ordered to as part of a settlement. Read the full article here. Massie’s amendment could be voted on as early as tomorrow so Campaign for Liberty members who oppose costly regulations should call their Representatives and tell them to vote for the Massie Amendment to the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill.