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account some wood-burning devices that weren't in use back then. The proposed rules would give manufacturers five years to make products that reduce emissions by approximately 80 percent. It would apply to wood heaters, including outdoor and indoor wood-fired boilers, known as hydronic heaters. The changes would only apply to new stoves and rules would not impact outdoor fireplaces, fire pits or other types of outdoor fire containers.
• There are roughly 12 million homes in the U.S. with wood stoves overall. Of those, as many as 9 million are less than half as efficient as more modern stoves, according to the EPA. About 2 percent U.S. homes rely on wood as their primary heating source, a number that has risen in the last 10 years.
• Mike Hindbjorgen works at The Fire Emporium, a Sioux Falls, S.D. store that sells a variety of stoves, including wood-fired models. He said the overall trend he has seen has been away from wood stoves to models powered by natural gas. But he said his store still sees rural clients who have been affected by increased propane prices who are interested in wood models.
• "When they took that shock on propane prices, a lot of them were thinking three or four grand for a new wood stove makes sense," said Hindbjorgen, 46. "The price of propane is jumping around ... they're trying to put a budget together."
• Hindbjorgen said even those purchases were usually more efficient wood-fired models than traditional stoves.
• Manufacturers and politicians in states with large rural populations have remained skeptical of new regulations and opposed to changes.
• In Missouri, more than three dozen lawmakers co-sponsored a bill declaring that "All Missourians have a right to heat their homes and businesses using wood-burning furnaces, stoves, fireplaces and heaters." Democratic and Republican members of Congress from Maine, Montana and Missouri have also expressed concerns about the EPA's proposal.
• At the same time, other states have called on the EPA to move more quickly against pollution caused by wood-fired boilers.
• In October, seven states primarily located in the urban northeast -- New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont -- sued the EPA asking the agency to update their emission policy to include wood-fired boilers.
• The EPA has been careful to note the new regulations won't require people to buy new devices, just put more efficient models in when they replace old stoves. The agency has said the changes are needed to lower emissions and improve air quality.

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