Winter is a long, lingering season in Missouri. While the rolling hills and frozen lakes are beautiful in the middle of winter, looking at a picturesque scene will not keep you or your family warm.
For over a year now, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been trying to make it more expensive for you to purchase a wood burning stove even though it is the most common, flexible and inexpensive space heating option.
You may ask yourself, why would the government want to do this? And then you remember this is stemming from the same Obama Administration that is also issuing hundreds of regulations all the time and trying to create a land grab of our nation's waters.
The Census Bureau estimates that 2.4 million households, 12 percent of all homes, burn wood as their primary heating fuel. So it is befuddling when approximately one year ago, the EPA issued a proposed rule which would require New Source Performance Standards for residential wood burning heaters. Not only would the proposed regulations have severe impacts on many of the rural 3rd District residents, and the 2.4 million households in America, but it would also hurt small businesses.
When the EPA issued the proposed rule, I responded and introduced the Wood Stove Regulatory Relief Act. My legislation is simple: it would prevent the EPA from instituting costly proposed new standards for wood burning stoves and heating systems that would effectively prohibit the manufacture and sale of 85 percent of wood burning heaters currently on the market.
So, when the EPA issued its final rule on February 3, 2015, and I saw they had scaled back the severity of the rule and took many recommendations that I included in the Wood Stove Regulatory Relief Act, I was pleasantly surprised. While I am pleased the EPA listened and implemented my recommendations, it was, and still is, my ultimate goal to have all the harmful aspects of this rule dropped.
In the next couple of weeks, as a response to the EPA's final rule, I intend to introduce another piece of legislation to ensure that our rural households and small businesses are not feeling the entirety of the impact of this unnecessary standard.
During a time of record unemployment, I have no idea why the EPA would spend time implementing more rules that would hurt our nation's small businesses, the economic driver in getting our nation back to work.
With nearly 90 percent of wood stove manufacturers that are small businesses and employ hard-working Americans, I will continue to push back against this rule until it has been reversed. Please know I will keep you updated with legislation coming out of my office and it is my hope that this time next winter this will all have been a bad dream.
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., represents the state's 3rd District, which includes Jefferson City. His local office can be reached at 573-635-7232.
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