President Carter, an early champion of modern wood stoves, installed them in the White House

President Carter next to a White House
fireplace.  We could not find any photo
of him with wood stoves.

  

A 1979 letter from Carter 

 

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Carter praised new, secondary burn technology emerging in the 1970s, before EPA regulations

President Carter is well known for installing solar panels on the White House and for urging Americans to turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater. But he was also a very public advocate or wood stoves and had about six of them installed in the White House and at Camp David. 

President Carter took office on Jan. 27, 1977, four years after the oil embargo that led to the embrace of wood stoves by a wide swath of rural and suburban Americans.  Carter took a personal interest in the technology and by 1979, the absolute height of wood stove sales in the US, Carter wanted to “persuade any remaining skeptics that wood burning stoves can be efficient, clean, fume-free and money saving.,” according to an article from the New York Times. 

Ironically, President Carter was touting the old, uncertified stoves that were just beginning to adopt effective secondary burn technology. “Fume-free” may be a nod toward “airtight” stoves that could be completely deprived of air but were a big advance in terms of not leaking smoke into the room. 
 

Carter’s task of convincing Americans that wood stoves were not just your grandparent’s technology, is a refrain that stove advocates today have to keep using, because the details of wood stove technology are still a niche interest. And, little did Carter realize at the time that the pellet stove, a completely new wood burning technology was about to hit the market. 

Carter installed the first wood stove in his second-floor study in 1978, or possibly early 1979, and up to 5 more were installed in the White House and Camp David.  The man he appointed as his administrator of the EPA, Douglas Costle cared about clean air, but apparently no one yet realized how much the annual sales of wood stoves would add up in rural communities.  Costle later became the Dean of the Vermont Law School, from 1987 to 1991 and passed away in 2019.

After President Carter said he would install a stove, the White House had more than 50 offers from manufacturers. The White House staff carefully selected six, choosing makers from different parts of the country. The companies, however, were not allowed to say that one of their stoves was selected for fear they would commercialize the info for their own profit.
The stoves selected by the Administration "are airtight, with blowers, filters, draft controls and safety features, all costing between $200 and $600, and capable of being installed in fireplaces or left free‐standing," according to one account.

One of the stoves was contributed by Representative Norman E. D'Amours, a New Hampshire Democrat, who presented it to Rosalynn Carter on a trip she made to that state. Another was given by the Wood and Stove Fireplace Journal, a trade magazine (a precursor to Richard Wright's Hearth & Home.) We also know that Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) urged  to source the stoves from Vermont Castings and one article says they got six Vermont Casting stoves. 
 
Another was donated by the Buck Stove Cooperation from North Carolina.  Carol Buckner, founder of the company, claims to have had one of his famous Buck Stoves installed there in 1979.  Carter may have also used a Schrader Wood Stove according to White House records.  

A list of which models of stoves were installed, and what happened to them may be out there for a historical sleuth to uncover.  

An Abundant Life stove like
this on was donated to the
White House 

It was only a few years later, in 1986, that Oregon set the first stove emissions standards, effectively banning the sale of most popular ones.  The EPA set their first regulations in 1988, but still today is trying to disentangle its regulations from the dimensional lumber test method they adopted from Oregon.
 
The EPA had high hopes for their regulations. One of their staff wrote in 1990: “it is hoped that over the next 15 years the 800,000 new wood stoves sold each year will gradually replace most of the 12 million older, dirtier models now in use.”  But wood stove sales fell quicker than expected and by the late 1990s, had settled to about 250,000 units a year. 
 
Many may believe Carter made a colossal mistake by getting behind the wood stove frenzy during that time, but as President, he felt some personal responsibility for the suffering that Americans were going through, trying to affordably heat their homes.  Part of his message was to “demonstrate that wood is a readily available alternative to nonrenewable fossil fuels.”  To this day, the EPA has never really acknowledged the ongoing role that wood and pellet heaters play in reducing fossil fuel. 
 
It is likely that the hype of new stove technology coming from Vermont Castings influenced Carter. In 1979, Vermont Castings was on the Fortune 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies, as a technology start up that was turning heads on Wall Street. The nation had yet to learn that even as stove technology made strides, and many more were forthcoming, they could still be operated poorly, causing excessive smoke.  This remains the quintessential issue with wood stoves, rendering lower EPA emissions thresholds vulnerable to the same problem: the operator and the often-wet wood loaded by the operator.

President Carter said that the new stoves were “absolutely remarkable.  They burn not only the wood but the gases from the wood.  They are highly efficient, have automatic thermostats and 2 or 3 oak logs … will last for as long as 8 or 10 hours.” 
 

Eva Horton, the first pioneer of 
advanced wood stoves in the US.

This statement, in 1979, shows what many have forgotten: cleaner stove technology was emerging far before the EPA enacted its first set of regulations in 1988, but the majority of stoves being sold were mostly steel boxes with a chimney. Centuries of innovation in masonry and tile wood heaters in Europe had long been forgotten except for some advanced technology that Eva Horton, a woman from Maine, started to import from Norway in 1972, before the oil embargo. She came across a Jotul stove and realizing its potential in the United States, began importing them, providing a vital design reference for Duncan Syme and Murray Howell, who founded Vermont Castings in 1975.  Their first stove, the Defiant, set a standard that is still relevant today.  
 
On the West Coast, Bob Fisher, was also discovering important design elements in the early and mid-1970s, installing baffle plates and refractory brick, basic but vital elements to help smoke reburn before escaping out the chimney.  These were no doubt what President Carter was referring to when he marveled at the advanced designs. 
 
The wood stoves in the White House did not last long.  Carter’s successor, President Reagan, from southern California, may have removed them all, although one may have remained in Camp David for longer. There are 35 fireplaces in the White House and President Nixon is reported to have gone through 50 cords.  Carter only needed 10 cords and was able to provide some heating to the rooms they were in. 
 
Wood was used in the White House kitchen stoves in the early 1800s, but by the 1850s, some of all of the stoves were converted to coal, and later to gas, just like the fuel transition that happened in most homes.

White House kitchen coal stove, 1883

During the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the fireside chat in the Great Depression, symbolized a warm, folksy atmosphere. Still today, a fire in the White House figures frequently in the background of formal gatherings.  Fireplaces are the most antiquated, inefficient and polluting form of heating, which does not seem to be an issue for a succession of Administrations.  The fireplace after all, can be a symbol of wealth and status, as opposed to the more efficient, cleaner wood stove, a symbol of rural low- or middle-income homes.  The willingness to burn fuel, without getting hardly any heat, is still common across America, in part because so many people like smell of an open fire.

Crested Butte Wood Stove Fair in 1983, when 
there were long waiting lists to get stoves.

It’s hard to measure President Carter’s legacy in promoting improved stove technology and how it can help families reduce expensive fossil fuel. In retrospect, it was a missed opportunity for the government to invest in more lasting and well-funded programs at the EPA and DOE to better understand how to regulate and accelerate R&D.  Instead, as Washington looked to other renewables, it allowed unregulated outdoor wood boilers to take off and for uncertified wood stoves to stay on the market until 2015.  And the EPA never made concerted efforts to promote the pellet stove over the cord wood stove, despite its mission to promote lower emission technologies. 

 

Unlike in the US, Europe continued to focus on energy efficiency and renewables after the oil embargo of 1973.  If Carter had a second term, he may have been able to make a more enduring energy efficiency legacy.  

 

Carter's childhood home's wood
cook stove

Since President Carter left office, it's not clear if anyone asked him about his efforts to promote wood stoves.  We hope that future US Presidents appreciate the value of R&D in wood stoves because they have had and will continue to have a remarkable staying power in American homes.  And, just as President Carter wanted, they continue to be one of the most widespread technologies helping to get Americans off of fossil fuel. 

President Carter's tenure in the office coincided with a period of rapid stove growth following the rise in oil prices that followed the oil embargo.  The overall use of stoves is far greater than this graph shows, since the Census only tracks primary heat sources, and most households use wood or pellet stoves along with a furnace or boiler that is a primary heater, or they consider a "primary" heater. 

Explanation of the OMB Review of the NSPS

Explanation of the Office of Management and Budget Process for the Wood Heater New Source Performance Standard

Prepared for the Alliance for Green Heat by the law firm Van Ness Feldman, LLP

Introduction

            On July 26, 2013 the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received for review the Standards of Performance for New Residential Wood Heaters, New Residential Hydronic Heaters and Forced-Air Furnaces, and New Residential Masonry Heaters (hereinafter referred to as the “Wood Heater NSPS”).  The following discussion explains the role of OMB in the rulemaking process and notes some specific information about the Wood Heater NSPS page on OMB’s website, which can be found here: http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201304&RIN=2060-AP93.

Background on the OMB Process

            The particular section of OMB that reviews significant draft regulations is called the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).  OIRA reviews rulemakings to determine whether EPA has considered various alternatives as well as to ensure coordination between federal agencies to avoid inconsistent, incompatible, or duplicative policies.  OIRA reviews approximately 500-700 rules a year.  OIRA can “return” a rule to the drafting agency for further review if it finds that the proposal is deficient.  Often such a process occurs when an agency has not sufficiently examined alternatives in the proposed rule.  OIRA also can suggest that changes be made to a rule before it is released in final form.

            The process of regulatory review is designed to help improve the rulemaking process and create coherent policies across all the agencies of government.  The OMB website notes, “Regulatory analysis is a tool regulatory agencies use to anticipate and evaluate the likely consequences of rules.  It provides a formal way of organizing the evidence on the key effects – good and bad – of the various alternatives that should be considered in developing regulations.  The motivation is to:  (1) learn if the benefits of an action are likely to justify the costs, or (2) discover which of various possible alternatives would be the most cost-effective.”  http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/OIRA_QsandAs/.

            OMB is required to review a rule within 90 days, but there is no minimum period for review.  The head of the rulemaking agency may extend the review period.  In addition, the Director of OMB also has the ability to extend the review, but not by more than 30 days.  http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/OIRA_QsandAs/.  In practice, however, OMB sometimes takes far longer than 90 days to review a rule, and in rare cases rules can stay at OMB for years.  If the Executive Branch does not want to finalize a rule, it can instead leave it marooned at OMB.  Thus, it is best to think of 90 days as a general rule of thumb from which OMB sometimes deviates, although legally they are required to act within the 90 day review period unless an extension is received.

Information on Wood Heater NSPS Process

            As noted earlier, the Wood Heater NSPS was received by OMB for review on July 26th.  In addition to the general process explained above, there is some specific information about the Wood Heater NSPS that is helpful to understand when consulting the page on the OMB website which tracks rules. 

            First, note that “NPRM” stands for “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.”  The date for the NPRM listed on the OMB page is September 2013.  This is the aspirational date for EPA to release the proposed rule after OMB review.  There is no settlement agreement pursuant to which EPA is required to release the Wood Heater NSPS by a particular date.  Given that the rule went to OMB in late July, it is possible that the deadline will slip and the rule will not be released until late October or November if OMB takes the whole 90 day period to review the rule.  

            EPA’s website lists the publication date for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in November, not September.  http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/rulegate.nsf/byRIN/2060-AP93.  It is likely that it will take several weeks after the release of the pre-publication version of the rule before it can be published in the Federal Register.  Therefore, if the pre-publication version is released in late September, in may not be published in the Federal Register until November 2013.  Publication will set the time frame for public comment.

            The date listed for the final rule, November 2014, is similarly a statement of when EPA would like to release the final rule, which includes time for responding to comments received on the proposed rule.  Again, because there is no litigation over EPA’s delayed timing for this rulemaking, this date also is aspirational.  While EPA’s listed date means that the Agency has every intention of hitting this marker, it does not always happen.  It is not possible to say precisely how easy it is to push back the date, other than to note that there are no litigants or a presiding court with which to negotiate, and thus there is much about the timing that is within the Agency’s discretion.  It is important to point out that the Agency could always be sued for delay in issuing its revised NSPS, and if the litigants prevail, a more truncated schedule for the rulemaking may be set by a settlement agreement.

            In addition to the dates for the proposed and final rules, some of the terms listed on the OMB page are helpful to understand.  First, it states that “the statutory final rule deadline is not driving the schedule for this action” and lists “2/26/1996” as the date for the statutory deadline.  This is because under the Clean Air Act, EPA is required to update the NSPS every eight years.  The last time the Wood Heater NSPS was amended was 1988.  Thus, technically, the standards were required to be reviewed in 1996, which means the Agency has fallen woefully behind its schedule for updating the rule.  Consequently, the page correctly notes that the statutory deadline is not “driving the schedule” for this action.

            The page also has a notation that states “small entities affected: businesses.”  The listing in this document is not a conclusion, but just a required statement.  As the EPA’s website explains, “EPA notifies the public when a rulemaking is likely to 1) have any adverse economic impact on small entities even though a Regulatory Flexibility Analysis may not be required and/or 2) have significant adverse economic impacts on a substantial number of small entities.  http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/rulegate.nsf/byRIN/2060-AP93#2.  Thus, this listing puts the pubic on notice that small businesses may be impacted by this rulemaking proceeding and that the appropriate small business analyses will be conducted.

            Further, the page includes the notations “priority: economically significant” and “unfunded mandates: no.”  Like the small entities notation, these are both required to be disclosed to the public. A rule is economically significant if it has potential economic impact of $100 million or more per year, or could “adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, or tribal governments or communities.” http://www.reginfo.gov/public/jsp/Utilities/faq.jsp.  Economically significant rules require a more extensive review of the costs and benefits.  The notation that there are no unfunded mandates denotes that the rule does not impose large burdens on state, local, or tribal entities without providing the resources to carry out those responsibilities.

Substantive Description of the Wood Heater NSPS

            In addition to the items above, the OMB page includes a description of what is to be included in the rulemaking.  First, it should be noted that this description holds no legal weight and is just an attempt to summarize what will be in the rule.  Specific terms include:

·      That the rule will “reflect significant advancements in wood heater technologies and design;”

·      “This rule is expected to require manufacturers to redesign wood heaters to be cleaner and lower emitting;” and

·      “[S]treamline the process for testing new model lines by allowing the use of International Standards Organization (ISO)-accredited laboratories and certifying bodies, which will expand the number of facilities that can be used for testing and certification of new model lines.”

            Each of these terms explains what is expected to be in the rule; however, this summary is purely descriptive and is not binding on the Agency.  The description simply represents what EPA was willing to put forth as a summary of the rule’s contents.  The text listed on the OMB site is the same as the abstract found on EPA’s website regarding the proposed rulemaking.   http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/rulegate.nsf/byRIN/2060-AP93#2.  The description is meant to inform the public about the possible changes in the current NSPS, but EPA’s website includes a disclaimer which notes, “The information on this site is not intended to and does not commit EPA to specific conclusions or actions.  For example, after further analysis, EPA may decide the effects of a rule would be different or it may decide to terminate a rulemaking.” http://yosemite.epa.gov/opei/rulegate.nsf/byRIN/2060-AP93#2.

                                   

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Prepared for the Alliance for Green Heat by Van Ness Feldman, LLP

White House Wood Stoves

It is commonly remembered that Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the White House roof in 1979, but what many people don’t know is that the 39th president was also a big fan of wood heat.  According to a 1980 article in the Telegraph, he, his wife Rosalynn and his aides burned about 10 cords in White House fireplaces and stoves during the winter season.  

Although Carter wasn’t the only president to burn significant quantities of wood to stay warm through the DC winter – Nixon and his staff allegedly once went through 50 cords! – he was eager to campaign for the fuel source, and even proposed a tax credit for the purchase of wood stoves.  During a speech in May 1979, Carter was reported as saying:   

“I grew up with wood-burning stoves and open fireplaces, but the new designs of stoves are absolutely remarkable. They burn not only wood, but the gases from the wood. They are highly efficient, have automatic thermostats, and two or three oak logs or hardwood logs will last for as long as 8 or 10 hours.”

Carter was so enamored with wood stoves that he had multiple ones installed in the White House and Camp David during his presidency.  In 1979, the Chicago Sometimes reported he ordered six stoves from Vermont Castings, Inc. at the behest of Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy.  Later, he was gifted even more stoves (fireplaces inserts) from companies eager to promote their products.  Carter accepted the stoves on one condition, that they did not turn it into a selling point.  

One of these White House stoves may have been donated from the Buck Stove Cooperation from North Carolina, which recently celebrated its 40th birthday.  Carol Buckner, founder of the company, claims to have had one of his famous Buck Stoves installed there in 1979.  Carter may have also used a Schrader Wood Stove Stove, according to White House records.  

Unlike the solar panels Carter installed (dismantled by Reagan and acquired by Unity College in Maine in 1991), whatever became of these White House stoves is unknown.  Rumor has it that Reagan may have got rid of the stoves too.

The Alliance for Green Heat urges Presidents to install at least one pellet stove at Camp David in Maryland.   

If anyone has any information on these or other White House Stoves, please let us know!  Feel free to email us if there's anything you want to share: info@forgreenheat.org.  The Alliance is very interested in learning more about them and locating them.