An amendment to the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act (H.R. 8) would nullify EPA’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for residential wood heaters (March 16, 2015, FR). The House passed the bill 249 to 174 and sent it to the Senate. According to Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), who introduced the amendment, the NSPS “disproportionately hurt rural areas, which use much more wood heat than urban or suburban areas.”
Significant changes to 1988 rule
The NSPS modified federal particulate matter (PM) emissions limits for residential wood heaters for the first time since 1988. The older standards applied to adjustable burn-rate woodstoves. The EPA found that the technologies for wood-burning stoves have advanced significantly, allowing the imposition of more stringent PM limits on adjustable burn-rate stoves and first time limits on pellet stoves, indoor and outdoor wood-fired hydronic heaters, wood-burning forced-air furnaces, and single burn-rate stoves.
The new requirements are being phased in over 5 years. The final rule did not replace state or local requirements governing wood heaters, but all wood heaters sold at retail in the United States must have a permanent label indicating that they are certified to meet the federal emissions limits.
The EPA estimated the new limits would generate annual benefits of $3.4 billion to $7.6 billion at a cost of $46 million. Furthermore, said the Agency, the benefits do not include the value of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compound (VOC), air toxics (e.g., formaldehyde, benzene, and polycyclic organic matter), and black carbon emissions reductions that would accompany the PM reductions.
Rural economy hit hardest
When issuing the rule, the EPA said it worked closely with manufacturers to ensure the new limits were technologically and economically feasible. While some industry associations said they were surprised by aspects of the final rule, few if any stakeholders disagreed that an update to the NSPS was needed.
But Smith was less concerned about whether companies can produce compliant stoves than the impact of the rule on “2.4 million households across America,” most of them in rural areas.
“The EPA has decided that 12 million wood-burning stoves need to be regulated because of Washington-driven bureaucrat emission standards,” said Smith. “In the 8th District of Missouri, about 30,000 households use wood heat to warm their homes. Census data show households heating with wood grew 34 percent between 2000 and 2010 and that low and middle-income households are much more likely to use wood as a primary heating fuel. Fifty-seven percent of households who primarily use wood for heat are in rural areas, 40 percent are in the suburbs, and only 3 percent are in urban areas.”
President would veto
In a statement of administrative policy, the White House said the Obama administration “strongly opposes H.R. 8 because it would undermine already successful initiatives designed to modernize the Nation's energy infrastructure and increase our energy efficiency.” The statement does not specifically mention the wood-burning stove NSPS.
The administrative policy statement can be found here.
H.R. 8 can be found here.