The New York Department of Environmental Conservation just gave a small reprieve to anyone who sells outdoor wood boilers, the controversial home heating furnaces known as OWBs. As of today, sellers have three more months to sell any old OWBs that don't meet the state's new emission standards. The department made the announcement in a press release issued today:
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced the adoption of an emergency rule pertaining to the sales of outdoor wood boilers in New York. The emergency rule extends the current regulation's sell-through date by 90 days, allowing a distributor to sell through July 14, 2011 any non-certified outdoor wood boiler models that were in the distributor's stock as of April 14, 2011.
Today was the first day the DEC's new certification rules regarding OWBs went into effect, so this is quite a last-minute change.
The new regs have been the subject of much controversy in the past year -- here's our collected coverage.
Smoke from an outdoor wood boiler, by Flickr user Michael Hoy.