August 16, 2022
Biomass Stove Tax Credit - Enacted!
Ryan Carroll, Vice President - Government Affairs
President Biden signed the Inflation Recovery Act (IRA) today and it contained the long-awaited (by us) tax credit for biomass stoves.
Why have we been promoting and lobbying for this for so long? Because replacing older stoves with a new, EPA-certified stove means cleaner air and a more efficient heating product. As a bonus, the tax credit will also make it easier to opt for a wood pellet stove. These are more complicated and more expensive than an EPA-certified woodstove. A tax credit will put clean pellet heat within reach of more people.
There are many areas of this country that depend on wood or pellets to heat their homes. And many people use a biomass heater as a backup for when the power goes out and they don’t have access to any gas options.
It’s easy to assume that electricity will always be available, especially when you are in a big city where outages are rare and short-lived annoyances. But in more rural areas, electricity is a wonderful convenience that isn’t quite as dependable. If this rural area is in a northern state and it is winter, it only makes sense to have a back up that can be fueled with biomass. (or even in Texas…)
Starting in 1988, the EPA began to regulate wood stoves. In 2015, the EPA updated those regulations with an updated New Source Performance Standards. Anything sold after May 15, 2020 is producing a fraction of the emissions that you would see in that old wood stove in your grandparents’ house. Every day that a homeowner is using an old stove instead of purchasing a new one, means unnecessary smoke in the air.
These technological marvels should be in every home that wants the convenience and reliability of biomass. Tax credits such as those signed into law today make these improvements more attainable for most families. We applaud the U.S. Congress and President Biden for including the biomass stove tax credit provisions within the IRA.