Ten states to sue EPA for not updating wood stove emission standards

Ten states and a regional government clean air agency plan on suing the Environmental Protection Agency for allegedly failing to update emission standards for wood-burning stoves, allowing high-emission stoves to still be sold. 

The mostly Democratic state attorneys general filed a notice of intent to sue the EPA last week. 

The group is urging the EPA to review its 2015 wood heater performance standards to see whether they adequately protect public health. If the EPA does not review the standards within 60 days of receiving the notice, the attorneys general threatened to file a lawsuit. 

"If newer wood heaters do not meet cleaner standards, then programs to change out old wood heaters may provide little health benefits at significant public cost," the group wrote in the notice.

The attorneys general involved in the case are from Alaska, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.

Alaska's Attorney General Treg Taylor is the only Republican who signed on to the notice. Additionally, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, a special purpose, regional government group created under the Washington Clean Air Act, signed the notice. 

Taylor said he is signing onto the letter because Fairbanks, Alaska, communities experience some of the coldest winters in the United States.

"We must defend the Greater Fairbanks area from potentially expensive, restrictive federal controls on businesses that are not the source of the problem like coffee roasters, restaurants, and utilities," Taylor said. "On the one hand, the EPA is threatening to disapprove the state’s air quality plan for Fairbanks, yet on the other, EPA ignores its own rules that directly impact air emissions by wood stoves."

The letter comes as the Biden administration has separately considered looking into the health effects of gas stoves.

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.