Arizona

Nothing to report at this time.

Colorado

Denver is planning to eliminate all-natural gas lines in new construction starting in 2024 and in all commercial buildings starting in 2027. Also, the State of Colorado will probably come out with a statewide electrification plan in the near future that would effectively ban gas lines in new construction.

So one congressman from Weld County tried to introduce a bill in the house, HB21-1034, that would not allow any city from restricting access to natural or propane gas as a source of energy in new construction. This bill was defeated in the House Energy & Environment committee by a vote of 7-5 which was strictly on party lines, Democrats against the bill and Republicans for the bill.

There was a lot of testimony on this bill on both for and against it. Two members of the RMHPBA gave testimony in favor of this bill, Lesley Short of Lehrer Fireplaces and Mark Humphreys of Fireplace Warehouse. We would like to thank them for their effort and time in doing the testimony. Both gave great presentations.

This will be the first of many fights in the battle to retain our right to sell gas appliances in the future. We will be working with the AGA and the NPGA in the future, and we hope we can count on our members and non-members to join us in this fight to protect our businesses.

Thank you to 31 Colorado members who acted I forgot to write this in the memo. We had 31 members respond to email we sent out about the HB21-1034. Great job to all the members that responded!

New Mexico

SB 8: Allows state and local environmental improvement boards to adopt emissions standards that are more stringent then federal air quality rules.

Utah

SB 5: In Utah, Governor Spencer Cox just signed SB-5, that keeps $500,000.00 in their existing budget for 2021 to replace old wood burning units with new gas or electric units in certain areas of the state. This bill preserves energy choice for the citizens of Utah, prohibiting the state from banning fuel options, including natural gas and propane. Utah joins Arizona and Tennessee in prohibiting local communities from mandating forced electrification. HPBA and most of the HPBA Affiliates are supporting similar legislation in over a dozen states.

Wyoming

Senate Bill SF 152: This bill would ban cities, town, and counties from not allowing access to natural gas, propane gas, or electricity as energy sources. It states local jurisdictions from stopping any energy hook ups that are furnished by a public utility including gas. RMHPBA and HPBA are OK with the language, except RMHPBA is asking for clarification because the way it’s worded, it looks like it’s limiting “propane utility service” to “provided by a public utility.” 

Read this message from HPBA President & CEO Jack Goldman

With states reopening and vaccines rolling out, 2021 appears to have brighter days ahead, but we understand there’s still a ways to go until the world is fully back on its feet. Hearing your concerns, HPBExpo has decided to go virtual this year. HPBExpo Connect will take place on the same dates, June 23-26, 2021, completely online.

While we would like nothing more than to greet you in a session room or exhibit hall, we are excited to fully engage with you through our immersive virtual event platform, eventPower.

As we move online, we look forward to offering you the same impressive selection of exhibitors, the New Product Showcase, and premier education with over 30 sessions. The virtual platform will allow you to navigate easily through the industry's latest product demos and provide the space to network and collaborate with exhibitors and retailers worldwide from the comfort — and safety — of your own home or office.

We can’t wait to reunite as a community at this reimagined event and celebrate our industry's resilience. We appreciate your patience, understanding, and flexibility as we work through the logistics of this transition. While the past year has brought about many challenges, we remain grateful for the support of the HPBA community.

If you are already registered to attend HPBExpo in Louisville, you will receive a separate message this week with details.

Read the announcement.

The RMHPBA Board of Directors are planning the 2021 Annual Gathering! Please take this short survey by April 2 to provide feedback so they can make a decision that works best for our members.

Vote here.

The RMHPBA has updated its By-laws to reflect the merge with AHPBA.

The primary changes to the By-laws include Article I, Section 2,  where it states the names of the states in the association including the addition of Arizona to it and to allow the location of the office(s) of the organization to be determined by the board; and to Article VI, Sections 1 and 2, where we have set up the board make up to be two directors from each state of the association provided that there are enough volunteers from each state who wish to be on the board. If not, it would be determined by the next highest vote total to fill the balance of the board including the 11th board member. Minor changes were also made throughout to allow electronic or email voting on issues before the board or before the membership.

Please read the proposed By-laws and submit your vote for or against these changes by April 21.

Vote here.

Starting April 1 members can take advantage of 60 days of Hearth Online trainings for $60! You will gain access to all the Hearth Online classes they have to offer for during the months of April and May. There are more than 350 classes in the system and it can be a great way to get CEU’s to retain your NFI Certification and CSIA. Visit https://www.rmhpba.org/Education-&-Resources to learn more.

It’s extremely cold out there for most of North America. To make this more dangerous, many parts of the country and millions of households are also coping with power outages. It is our hope that those who are affected by this terrible combination have the comfort of a fireplace or some other back-up source of heating available to them.

Read the entire blog by HPBA on their website. 

Beginning Jan. 1, 2021 the Arizona Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association officially merged with the RMHPBA! The Boards of both associations voted on the merge in October 2020 and the HPBA approved it in December 2020. The merge went into effect Jan. 1, 2021.

Welcome our new members and friends from Arizona by commenting on this article (click the three dots on the top left) and let's look ahead to an exciting year in our industries!