PFI submits comments on minimum pellet fuel requirements in NSPS

On Jan. 14, the Pellet Fuels Institute continued its ongoing effort to eliminate the inclusion of minimum pellet fuel requirements in the New Source Performance Standard by submitting written comments to the U.S. EPA prior to the comment deadline.

“Our submitted comments are simply a refrain of the position that the PFI has held and argued for since at least 2015,” said PFI Executive Director Tim Portz. “Including minimum pellet fuel requirements in federal regulation will not advance the aims of the Clean Air Act and will unfairly burden pellet manufacturers with compliance requirements not born by any other fuel type in the wood heat category.”

The PFI has long been an advocate for pellet standards as a means of guaranteeing the availability of high-quality wood pellets in the marketplace, developing in concert with state and federal regulators the world’s most robust pellet standards program. “The challenge for the PFI is helping stakeholders in the regulatory community understand that our opposition is not to standards or minimum requirements, but to codifying those standards and requirements within a piece of federal regulation,” said Portz.

The PFI contends that the EPA lacks the legal authority to promulgate minimum pellet fuel requirements as it has failed to establish how these requirements are or would contribute to a “best system of emissions reduction” for wood heaters, as the EPA is required to do.

“Wood pellets are amongst the cleanest burning solid fuel appliances commercially available today,” said Portz. “The inclusion of minimum fuel requirements in federal regulation will not move the needle at all regarding particulate matter from their combustion but it will place a unique burden on the manufacturers of this great fuel product. For that reason, our opposition to their inclusion in federal regulation will continue.”