EPA Regulations Ban Most Brands Of Wood-Burning Stoves; Tighter Standards Will Affect Many Americans

If you like your heat-producing stove you can keep it.  Unless it burns wood, apparently.  New regulations set forth from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ban the production and sale of 80% of the current wood-burning stove models in the United States.

The Federal government's issue is pollution.

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.

Recent surveys demonstrate that wood-burning stoves provide the primary source for heat in 12% of American homes;  Add in the number of stoves that are utilized for second-sources or cabins, garages, et cetera and its easy to see the far-reaching consequences these new regulations will have.