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Monday, March 31, 2014

Discussion of comments on our petition


 Our petition in support of cleaner stoves and cleaner air has reached 500 signatures in just five days.  Please click here to sign if you haven’t already signed.

The most frequent comments that we have received by far have been “I want to do my part to help keep the air we breathe clean.“ 

There have been just a few objections to our petition.  Several people suggested that we should be wary of supporting anything that the federal government & EPA is doing. But Lisa D says it best: “At times, governance is needed, and I firmly believe this is one of those times.” (See full comment to the right)

A few people suggested that we were just supporting the NSPS for our “economic advantage.”  We think that the new regulations may help the entire woodstove industry, and hence be to everyone’s economic advantage.

In the larger scheme of things, Woodstock Soapstone Company is a very small wood stove manufacturer (less than 30 employees) and yet we've proven that the technology to make clean stoves is attainable, affordable, and user friendly. If our company can innovate and meet higher standards, then we believe other (much larger) wood stove manufacturers can as well.

As companies are forced to meet tougher standards, they will innovate and adopt new technologies that will make stoves both cleaner and more efficient, as well as more affordable.  New products will be more attractive, and sales will go up, not down.  Economic interests are served well by an industry that is more vibrant, innovative and attractive.  These are expressed well in the final two comments at the right.

There is considerable room between the view that new regulations will force new technology and innovation, on the one hand, or on the other hand, that new regulations are going to kill the industry. We are more inclined to believe the former than the latter.

We are a country full of great minds.  We sincerely believe that some of those great minds can and should be put to use to benefit the wood stove industry, the consumer, and the environment.  It’s an achievable win-win-win.

Click here to sign our petition




2 comments:

  1. "We are a country full of great minds" Yes, indeed, and we can and shall make our environment better for the future generations. America did the same sort of thing with automobiles making them more efficient, cleaner, and now we all enjoy great automobiles as well as better mileage. We did this with regulations, the auto industry was challenged and did it, and the consumers reaped the benefit, both at the pump and the air we breath. And, along the way to do this some jobs were created......Let's keep moving forward in America!

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  2. Being a Libertarian, I do not favor regulations. However, I was in China (once) and decided to take a walk. The desk at the hotel offered me one of those white particulate masks to wear because of the terrible air quality, much of it due to dirty burning. It was then that I changed my view on clean air regulations. Let’s keep the USA clean.
    Al W. Vermont

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