Could Illinois Ban Wood Burning Stoves? It's Not Impossible

To be clear, there is no ban on wood burning stoves in Illinois or any other state I'm aware of. Yet. However, there is a movement toward stringent regulation and Illinois is one of the states leading the charge.

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If you want to learn when something may be banned someday, look at the trends of places that start complaining about that certain something. In 2023, there was a growing outcry about wood burning stoves.

Quartz recently shared a story about 10 states that want the EPA to "crack down" on wood burning stoves saying that their carbon emissions violate "air quality guidelines". Guess what state was one of the 10? Give yourself a cookie if you said Illinois because that's correct. The Illinois attorney general was reportedly one to ask the Environmental Protection Agency to make the guidelines stricter.

Wood burning stoves being a problem is not an isolated one time story. Here are several that all seem to be leading the same direction:

You get the idea. The EPA shared a report that found 8-year-old standards for wood burning stoves "problematic".

Think it's impossible that Illinois or any state would actually ban wood burning stoves? That word has already been used including the story by Green Builder Media. Their idea of a compromise is this:

Rather than an outright ban on wood stoves, an “emergency use only” ordinance would make sense.

Mark my words. Some state will eventually try to pass a ban on wood burning stoves or make them "emergency use only". The fact that Illinois is one of 10 states to already start complaining about them makes it a likely candidate to be one of the first to try and shut them down completely.