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EPA Imposes Its Ban on 80% of Wood Stoves, Fireplaces Are Not Far Behind
by S. Noble • March 9, 2015
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Last month, the EPA moved ahead with sweeping new regulations on wood stoves, wood-fired furnaces and outdoor boilers. It is a far-reaching one-size-fits-all solution to an issue requiring less intrusiveness. Some states say they won’t abide by the rule.

The same EPA rule applies to someone living alone in the woods as someone living in a crowded housing development.

The EPA air quality models used a national-average-benefit-per-ton measurement and they even admit it does not account for local variability. Environment and other factors alter the fine particulate matter they hope to regulate.

There is a grandfather clause and the regulations will be put into place over the course of five years. The grandfather clause quells resistance but it does ban any reselling or trading of non-compliant wood stoves.

Wood stoves will become very expensive because these rules will ban 80% of the current wood stoves and fireplace inserts. Old ones will become more and more expensive to repair

The ruling will “require efficiency and carbon monoxide testing and reporting, which will provide consumers additional information to help them select the best wood heater for their homes.” It will cost sellers and home owners time and money as they face an unbending bureaucracy overseeing these simple devices.

There are problems that the EPA should address, but the question is if they have gone too far with their stringent rules.

Some states like Missouri and Michigan have already barred the federal regulations with legislation and Virginia might do the same, but federal regulators will step in and take over.

The EPA says it will reduce the fine particle emissions by about 70%. At the same time, 12% of American households heat their homes with wood stoves and many of them tend to be lower income individuals who won’t be able to afford the new wood stoves.

If they really cared as much about the environment as they say, we’d have nuclear power which is the cleanest energy form but it’s more about de-industralizing and controlling in accordance with an ideological perspective.

There are those who don’t want their neighbors to have wood-burning stoves and claim the smoke is affecting their health. They gladly welcome the totalitarianism of the unelected bureaucrats in the EPA.

The regulations will also put many sellers out of business, especially mom and pop stores.

The EPA is imposing mandates on wood-fired furnaces and outdoor boilers for the first time. The Attorneys General in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont, all Democratic strongholds, filed suit against the EPA demanding wood-burning water heaters and outdoor wood boilers be included. The extreme environmental group EarthJustice also filed suit.

This is an example of “sue and settle” in which the environmental extremists cooperatively sue and settle with government officials who don’t want to deal with the people.

The corrupt scheme allows the EPA more freedom in advancing harsh regulations on the public. The scheme works like this according to Senator Vitter of Louisiana:

A far-left environmental group sues a federal department or agency, like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claiming that the government is not satisfying its regulatory obligations. Then, after the group and the EPA plan and discuss the matter – without the involvement of any others, including affected business, landowners, and state and local governments – they draft a settlement agreement committing the agency to regulate a certain sector of the economy or type of private property. All that’s left is to get the presiding judge to bless their friendly agreement.

There’s even a bonus prize in this scheme. Because such a settlement is counted as a “win” for the environmental group plaintiff, that suing group is awarded all of its costs and attorney’s fees, creating a revolving fund for its continuing activity, courtesy of our wallets.

Presto: the left, including the Obama Administration, advances its aggressive environmental agenda. No need for messy Congressional hearings or opposing arguments.

Tens of millions have been spent on these corrupt “lawsuits” but it is impossible to get a handle on it at the EPA because they don’t keep track of their attorney’s time on a case-by-case basis. FOIA requests are being ignored completely.

http://www.independentsentinel.com/epa-imposes-its-ban-on-80-of-wood-stoves-fireplaces-are-not-far-behind/

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