Two bills containing a collection of environmental rules passed the House and Senate on Thursday, after lawmakers removed language that would have allowed the state Department of Environmental Protection - rather than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - to enforce federal standards reducing air pollution emissions from new wood-burning stoves and furnaces.
Lawmakers suspended the rules that normally require bills to be read on three consecutive days, and then they approved both the DEP's annual "rules bundle" and a second bill that updated certain air pollution regulations but specifically excluded the new EPA standards governing the manufacturers of wood stoves and furnaces.
The bills passed the House on votes of 95-0 and the Senate 33-1, with Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, voting against both measures.
On Wednesday, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin had added the DEP rules to the agenda of a special session that's supposed to focus on the state's growing budget crisis. The DEP package includes the relaxation of water quality standards for toxic selenium and aluminum that have long been sought by the coal industry, rules to implement the state's new chemical tank safety law passed following the January 2014 Elk River spill, and a dozen new or amended agency rules governing everything from air quality to hazardous waste to natural gas drilling.
Judiciary Chairman John Shott, R-Mercer, told the House the measures had been "cleansed" of language that earlier this year led to the demise of the entire DEP rules package on the last night of the regular legislative session.
The move does not make the federal standards invalid in West Virginia, but instead takes any enforcement out of the hands of state officials at the DEP and reverts such authority to the EPA - a federal agency that many lawmakers and state political and industry leaders increasingly like to use as a rhetorical punching bag.
"If the EPA wants to come in and do that, that just sets up a really good case for our Attorney General to say, 'No, you can't do that,'" said Delegate Tom Fast, R-Fayette.
Fast has led a group of conservative House members who have repeatedly tried to depict the EPA wood stove rule as regulatory micromanagement aimed at trying to control the way people heat their homes by, for example, mandating the type or moisture content of the wood they burn.
Actually, the EPA rule governs the manufacturers of wood-burning stoves and sets new limits on the amount of pollution that wood heaters manufactured in the future can emit. The new rule, last updated in 1988, does not affect current heaters already in use in homes.
Under the rule, new wood stove air emissions - which can include soot, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide and air toxics - will be reduced by roughly two-thirds, the EPA said when it issued the final rule in February 2015. The EPA estimated that for every dollar spent to bring new, cleaner heaters to market, the American public would see between $74 and $165 in health benefits. The rules will also make stoves more efficient, so consumers will use less wood to heat their homes, EPA said.
EPA says the rule ensures that consumers buying wood heaters anywhere in the country will be able to choose from cleaning-burning models.
"It's a rule directed at the manufacturers of wood stoves, not the consumers of the products," said DEP general counsel Kristin Boggs. "EPA does not come into their homes and look at the type of wood chips they use."
Boggs said the agency was not aware of any stove or furnace manufacturers in West Virginia who would be affected by the DEP standards. Boggs said any language in the EPA standards that applies to operators of new wood stoves is similar to other regulatory requirements that instruct consumers to use a variety of potentially dangerous products as they were intended or as outlined in product manuals. She compared such language to instructions on mattress tags that the tags not be removed under penalty of law.
Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, compared the wood stove rule to a requirement that vehicle manufacturers include catalytic converters and that vehicle owners not remove such equipment. Ireland compared how the rule doesn't apply to existing wood stoves to the ability to keep driving an older car that doesn't have a catalytic converter.
Ireland also noted that, even if West Virginia does have wood stove makers, they would be selling their products across state lines and still be subject to the EPA standards.
"We as a state, whether we like it or not, really don't have a choice about whether we do or do not comply," Ireland said. "It's about who does the enforcement."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at
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304-348-1702 or follow
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