Rose Cottage Ltd

In 2007 I decided to buy a wood stove. Since I lived on a rural property with a lot of wood and kindling that needed clearing anyway, this seemed almost a no-brainer. So I began to do my research and noticed that some wood stoves were “EPA Rated” and some were not. Being concerned about the environment, I decided to get the best EPA rated stove I could afford. Even though having it EPA rated meant it cost a bit more.

You can type the search phrase “wood stove” on this blog and find the many articles I’ve written about the installation, the work involved to “feed,” and the cost benefits I realized by having the stove.

In summary though, over the six cold weather seasons, I guesstimate I saved around $3600 in gas heating costs by using the stove. Cost of the stove and installation? About $1200. So, by doing my own work to gather the wood required – which was in turn getting rid of trees – many that had already fallen or needed to come down, I saved about $2400, or $300 each heating season. Not sure about you, but to me, this is a significant savings for a little work.

Now, the EPA is planning to CHANGE the requirements for a wood stove. If they get their way, the new rules will be so restrictive as to make nearly every single wood stove in America suddenly “illegal.” Even the EPA-Certified stove I just bought in 2007!

“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.

This is the same EPA that had loose enough requirements to nearly guarantee that Duke Energy was able to “accidentally” release thousands of pounds of coal ash into North Carolina rivers because they fought EPA “restrictions” that would have made their coal ash storage ponds safer and less likely to leak or burst. Which is exactly what happened.

But the EPA and this current administration would rather go after the small percentage of wood stove users than to monitor Duke Energy.

Even worse, here’s what the EPA was pushing just last August 2013:

U.S. customers who upgrade to an EPA-certified stove in 2013 are already eligible for a biomass federal tax credit up to $300. Several companies are sweetening the deal, offering incentives for swapping out dusty old stoves and fireplace inserts for newer, less polluting models.

Wait a minute! You were encouraging people just six months ago to upgrade to EPA-certified stoves and now you’re changing the rules? My stove might now not be certifiable but I might be!!!

Not only is this a ignorant way to run a country, it’s a ridiculous way to “manage” a industry. Not only will you stop people from the ability to choose a wood stove to help with ever-increasing heating bills, you’re about to destroy the wood stove industry – putting even more people out of work.

If the Environmental Protection Agency was pushing their “EPA-Certified” stoves just six months ago and now they are attempting to regulate those out of existence, who wins here?

It doesn’t take a genius to figure that if you are stopped from using your EPA-certified wood stove, your heating bills from other sources such as gas, oil or electric will increase – adding to the profits those companies already make. You can’t spin that fact, even with Common Core math!

I’m not sure where all this new regulation and restriction of American citizens will end, but I guarantee it won’t be pretty. I know plenty of people who RELY on their wood stove to say warm in winter. If they are willing to do the extra work, and they have a EPA-Certified stove, leave them alone and quit changing the game.