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North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 2, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Energy Environment

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Mr. ROUZER. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment to the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act.

In early March of this year, the EPA published a final rule establishing new regulations for wood heaters. Manufacturers and consumers across the country are concerned about the negative impact of these new regulations. In essence, these new requirements will increase the cost to the point that wood heaters may very well be priced out of the marketplace. The best case scenario is that consumers will be paying more. Now, Madam Chair, neither is a good outcome.

According to reports, 10 percent of U.S. households still choose wood heaters to keep their energy costs as low as possible. The number of households that rely on wood as their primary heating source--get this--rose by nearly one-third from 2005 to 2012.

It is important to note that several States have worked to protect their residents from the consequences of these new regulations. Wisconsin, Missouri, Michigan, Virginia, and my home State of North Carolina have all introduced or have passed legislation that prohibits their respective environmental agencies from enforcing these burdensome, unnecessary regulations. The reason is that they know the costs of additional regulations are always passed down to the consumers.

Simply put, the Federal Government has no business telling private citizens how they should heat their homes.

Think about all of the folks in the Midwest and the Northeast who are going to need and want a wood heater. After all, this is America. If you want to have the opportunity to buy a wood heater, you ought to have that opportunity. It shouldn't be priced out of the market.

Madam Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Smith).

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Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Chairman, this is a commonsense amendment that has been put forward in order to address an onerous, unnecessary rule. My question is: What are we going to try to regulate next--fireplaces? It is next on the list, it seems to me.

I ask for the support of this amendment, and I thank my colleague from Missouri for being here to offer his words of support for the amendment.

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