Posted on 02/07/2015 6:36:42 AM PST by xzins
When my husband and I move to a new area, we specifically look for a home with a wood burning stove. It’s cheaper and if the power grid goes down, we have a way to survive it. Yep, we’re preppers. These regulations are meant to do away with wood stoves and force people to get their heat from gas or electric, paid for at exorbitant rates from utility providers. In some areas, even with gas or electric, the only way to truly keep a home warm is with a wood or pellet stove. This is more of the EPA’s fascist heavy handedness, trying to control all we do and force us into behavior and routines like you would livestock. The EPA can pound sand as far as I’m concerned.
From the Daily Caller:
The EPA has finalized a 344-page rule to make wood stoves more environmentally friendly, meaning that millions of Americans will soon be forced to buy more expensive wood-fired stoves.
Republican lawmakers have opposed the rule, saying it would harm millions in rural America that rely on wood stoves to heat their homes every winter. With natural gas and electricity prices on the rise, wood stoves can be an economical choice for many living in the countryside.
“The EPA’s shortsighted regulatory overreach is once again hitting hardworking Montanans in their pocketbooks,” said Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines.
Some 2.4 million American households rely on wood stoves for heat. When the agency proposed the rule last year, critics argued 80 percent of wood stoves in use would not meet tightened standards and consumers would never be able to buy them brand new — raising energy costs for millions of people during the coldest times of the year.
“Thousands of Montanans rely on wood burning stoves for affordable, cost-effective energy — yet once again, the EPA is moving forward with new, costly regulations that could stand in the way of Montanans’ access to new residential wood heaters or burden Montana families with higher costs,” Daines said.
But EPA claims the rule will save lives while only costing $45.7 million per year. EPA also argues that forcing people to ditch their wood stoves will result in 360 to 810 fewer death per year from reduced emissions of carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds.
“To the extent that children and other sensitive populations are particularly susceptible to asthma, and that minority populations and low-income populations are more vulnerable, this rule will significantly reduce the pollutants that adversely affect their health,” the EPA said in regulatory documents.
The finalized version of EPA’s rule also gives manufacturers more time to make and certify stoves that emit fewer pollutants. Politico’s Morning Energy notes that “[c]ompanies that make small wood-burning forced air furnaces will have to meet first-step emissions limits by 2016, with large furnaces having until 2017.”
“All sizes have to meet second-step limits by 2020,” reports Politico. “EPA will also allow conditional certification for up to a year for several devices if the manufacturer gets an EPA-accredited lab to certify an emissions test.”
[…]
Wisconsin Republicans State Rep. David Craig and State Sen. Frank Lasee introduced legislation to prevent state regulators from implementing the EPA’s wood stove rules. Craig and Lasee argue the rule will only serve to raise energy prices for state residents and hurt manufacturers. Missouri has also introduced a law to block the EPA wood stove rule.
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to introduce regressive standards that hurt Wisconsinites, particularly low income families who rely on wood heat,” said Craig.
States such as Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Wisconsin and other states that have very rural areas are not likely to take this sitting down. It will hurt millions of people and many just won’t be able to afford to get a new, more expensive wood stove. This has nothing to do with asthma or pollution either. That’s just another piece of governmental propaganda. It has everything to do with controlling energy and resources and wait for it… money. Like doing away with coal, this will also cause energy prices to skyrocket even more. We don’t have to see Russia from here anymore… we’re living in it.
What goes unmentioned is that government forest management has been a total disaster. Much of the wood burns in forest fires anyway with far greater emissions than a stove. We actually need economic uses for wood to fund forest management.
See my post #56.
only costing $45.7 million per year
Those tax payers can always make do with less. We in the Govt however always need more.
This is to help save more low income people? Don’t low income people live in the cities, in poor areas, where there are few wood burning stoves? A wood stove isn’t really a cost effective option where you can’t chop down your own wood.
the peasantry where I live are all armed and for many their primary source of meat is fish and game.
Now you’re talking! Repeal, baby, repeal. :)
We now live in an era when the new things we buy are worse than the old. My brand new home with low flow showerhead and low flow toilet don’t work as well as the older flush toilet and showerhead. My new dishwasher is a weak shadow of the 10 year old one it replaced. Only my washer seems to work better, but that is because I replaced a top with a front loader. Newer top loaders do not do a good job, according to Consumer Reports. And don’t get me started on light bulbs.
Where I’m at even a not so efficient wood stove is cheaper heat even if you buy your wood. With fuel oil over 3 a gallon this year and propane at about 2, both of the subject to extreme rise simply due to bad weather, there really is no comparison to a half cord of wood in a pickup truck for 50 or 60 bucks.
Do you call the hazmat team to remove the mercury when your ‘green’ low wattage twisty bulbs break? :>)
Once the Fedgov got it past SCOTUS that they could force people to buy something it's just a very small step to forcing folks to get rid of private property of any kind.
Liberals/Progressives are patient. They use baby steps to get their agenda to be canonized.
You have a point, I wasn’t thinking of oil heat. However pretty much all the inner city buildings have been converted to gas.
You should check out building a wood gasifier. It can produce heat AND run a generator...which produces even more heat.
California had smoke Nazis whose sole job was to drive around and look at chimneys. I imagine they still do.
Use spray foam in that double wall and even sound is muffled. I was surprised by a simple 6” wall with the stuff deadening street noise such that not even construction noise across the street was heard.
My last assignment in Germany they had instituted a new law that you could only warm your car up for 2 minutes on a cold morning.
I actually had people knock on my door to complain about my car running on a cold day.
Hard to believe that Americans are more like Europeans every day.....can’t walk on the grass, but offing an entire race is just fine.
Yeah....I put a 2 inch foam layer on the roof prior to installing new tiles....sure deadened the sound...warmer in winter and cooler in summer....even were able to get rid of the A/C ...I guess also because the world is slowly cooling.
You’re right. It’s a whole lot different out here in the countryside. I have my own trees....lots of them. No other energy source can compete with free (plus my labor, of course.)
Hardy?
Central Boiler Classic
ah, OK. These are pretty cool products. Saves me a ton on my electric bill. And the family likes the unlimited hot water.
And they do give off a better heat too.
“Has the government ever before said that it will force people owning old cars to get rid of those cars?”
Yep. If your car does not pass smog and it is not repairable, it goes.
THey did it with trucks in CA. Any commercial vehicle in CA must have a 2010 or new engine or be retro fitted with a $18000 pollution device by 1 Jan 2015 or it goes. I think by some future date there are to be no old trucks on the road. I think eventually they will extend this to cars.
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