Industry gets three-year reprieve on portion of boiler rule
Decision looms on another part of regulation
Heath E. Combs -- Furniture Today, January 14, 2011
WASHINGTON — In a move that will likely benefit domestic furniture manufacturers at least for the time being, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will defer greenhouse gas permit requirements for wood-fired boilers for three years.
Many domestic manufacturers burn wood, left over from the manufacturing process, in boilers at their factories. Factory owners were worried that the greenhouse gas permit requirement would increase their costs, or prevent them from using the boilers.
Bill Perdue, vice president of the American Home Furnishings Alliance, said the three-year reprieve was good news for domestic furniture producers with wood-fired boilers.
However, the industry still faces a fast-approaching decision on another set of rules under the Clean Air Act on Boiler MACT, which could have costly implications for the furniture industry.
MACT stands for Maximum Achievable Control Technology. The AHFA argued that a proposed rule would prevent furniture manufacturers from using dry wood as a fuel for their boilers, because it would be lumped in with less clean fuels such as "wet" wood, pulp, bark and animal waste.
The EPA is seeking a 15-month extension on implementing that rule, and a decision on whether it will be granted is expected from a U.S. District Court judge here by Jan. 21. EPA requested the extension so it could further investigate the way it categorized biomass boilers - whether all types of biomass fuels should be treated the same.
Perdue said in a statement that the AHFA "ensured that the furniture industry was among those supplying the EPA with relevant scientific data to demonstrate the environmental benefits of dry wood fuel. The low-moisture wood that our industry currently combusts is a clean, renewable energy source that is a byproduct of the manufacturing process."
The environmental group the Sierra Club opposes the 15-month extension, and said in court documents the EPA hasn't provided enough evidence to show why it hasn't issued a rule yet.
The EPA has estimated that there are more than 200,000 boilers operating in U.S. at 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 reduced health care costs and other benefits.
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