McCaskill to EPA: Protect Affordable Wood-Burning Stoves and Heaters

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy asking the agency to work with small independent manufactures to craft affordable, achievable heating rules for rural families as it implements its new emission standards for wood-burning stoves.

McCaskill’s letter came in response to the EPA’s recently proposed rule updating the 1988 standards for new wood stoves and heaters, which currently account for 13% of nationwide soot pollution. Several public and private voluntary programs, such as the Wood Stove Changeout and EPA’s own BurnWise program, have already successfully minimized fine particulate matter and other hazardous air pollutants from wood stoves and heaters.

McCaskill-who has worked to ensure Missouri families can heat their homes without breaking the bank-expressed concern that for the EPA’s programs to be successful, consumers must have access to newer wood stoves and heaters that are affordable.

“If the costs of new stoves are unnecessarily increased, consumers will not choose to replace their older, dirtier models with newer, cleaner options,” McCaskill wrote in the letter. “That is why I am concerned that EPA’s current proposal would negatively impact small independent manufacturers who do not have the financial resources to quickly redesign their products or manufacturing processes. If emission standards are unattainable for the sector at large or implemented too quickly for manufacturers to adjust, I fear the net benefits of these proposed rules will not materialize. Therefore I strongly encourage you to work with manufacturers to craft a rule that is achievable, affordable, and benefits the millions of Americans who use wood stoves and heaters as a primary or supplementary source of heat.”

McCaskill is also a co-sponsor of the Reliable Home Heating Act, which would help protect the roughly 212,000 Missouri families who rely on propane for heating from propane price spikes and shortages like those this winter across the Midwest.