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Luetkemeyer Urges EPA Administrator to Extend Timeline for Warm Air Furnace Compliance

Washington, November 20, 2014 -

U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03) sent a letter to Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy urging the agency to follow past precedence and ensure that small businesses are not unfairly harmed by allowing a one year compliance timeline for warm air furnaces under the upcoming regulations.

Warm air furnaces are forced-air, wood-fired furnaces generally used by homeowners and are available for sale at home improvement stores. The EPA’s proposed standards would prohibit the manufacture or sale of any non-certified warm air furnace within 60 days of the final regulation’s publication in the Federal Register. In effect, that means manufacturers of a product that has never before been regulated will have to stop production, master a new testing process, and retool operations in just 60 days. In addition, because the rule prohibits the sale of non-certified models, manufacturers will have to repurchase the stock that home improvement stores already have purchased.

According to the letter Luetkemeyer sent, prior to this proposal the EPA has never required emissions controls on warm air furnaces, and manufacturers will not be required to modify and submit their models to costly tests prior to certification.

“The EPA’s benchmark of 60 days is not feasible for manufacturers to properly comply with their regulations for warm air furnaces,” Luetkemeyer said. “The EPA should consider this bipartisan and bicameral solution and extend the timeline to at least one year so manufacturers can properly ensure they meet the financial and logistical challenges to certification that is now requested.”

Earlier this year, Luetkemeyer introduced the Wood Stove Regulatory Relief Act, which 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. Nearly 90 percent of wood stove manufacturers are small businesses that employ hardworking Americans, including many in Missouri’s 3rd District.