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Boiler Rule May Be Delayed

Heath E Combs -- Furniture Today, December 15, 2010

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking an extension on issuing final rules for Boiler MACT, parts of which could have costly implications for U.S. furniture manufacturers.
     A new proposed rule was issued in April for Boiler MACT, which stands for Maximum Achievable Control Technology. It would prevent furniture manufacturers from burning wood as a fuel for their boilers, according to the American Home Furnishings Alliance, which has been actively working with regulators on the rule.
     Enforcement of the proposal as written could cost companies $3 million to $4 million per boiler for compliance, one industry executive said.
     The proposed rule would lump dry wood fuel into a larger biomass category that includes dirtier fuels such as "wet" wood, pulp, bark and animal waste, the AHFA said.
     The EPA said in a press release that it has received comments that "shed new light on a number of key areas, including the scope and coverage of the rules and the way to categorize the various boiler-types."
     Without the extension, the EPA is on a court-ordered timeline to issue final rules by Jan. 16. The extension would allow another 15 months for the EPA to release rules. It would push back the final release of the rule to April 2012 and would allow another public comment period.
     AHFA Vice President Bill Perdue organized a last-minute visit to U.S. senators this month to give furniture executives a chance to convey implications of the proposed rule. Executives from Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, Stanley Furniture, Ashley Furniture Inds., Kincaid Furniture, Furniture Brands International and Gat Creek took part.
     "The senators we met with ... understood and agreed that the proposed rule would have been harmful to U.S. competitiveness in several industries, including residential furniture," Perdue said in a press release.
     Micah Goldstein, chief operating officer for Stanley, said that the proposed rule as written would be cost-prohibitive for a variety of industries, including furniture, door, that burn wood for energy.
     "We're looking for standards to be set based on the type of fuel that we combust in our boilers," Goldstein said. "Don't hold us to the same standards and make us go through the same extensive processes as you would make somebody go through that's burning other types of biomass that are very different from what we burn - wet fuel for instance or livestock waste."
     Goldstein said the cost of compliance with the original proposed rule would be about $3 million to $4 million per boiler.
     "There's not a single boiler in the Unites States right now that would meet those compliance standards. So they set the baseline pretty high in a way that was unachievable," he said.
     The EPA estimated there are more than 200,000 boilers operating in U.S. industrial and commercial facilities and hotels and universities. It estimated that for every $5 spent on reducing boiler pollutants, the public would see $12 in health and other benefits.

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Boiler rule delay could help U.S. furniture plants

Dec 8, 2010

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