In general, biomass heat fulfills the same public policy objectives that are the basis for the incentives and subsidies that other renewable energies receive, such as reducing consumption of foreign oil to increase American energy independence, reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses and air pollutants such as mercury and sulfur dioxides, and strengthening local economic development and job creation. Specifically, incentivizing clean, efficient home heating appliances can achieve these goals in an economically efficient manner while at the same time empowering more homeowners to use renewable energy.

Despite the widespread use of traditional wood stoves, modern biomass combustion systems have a relatively small market penetration and pose a significant price barrier to consumers- especially the low-middle income consumers to whom renewable energy technology is financially out of reach. Over 95% of Americans believe that improved appliance efficiency is important for personal financial reasons. 1Although these cleaner and more efficient systems represent a new class of technology, they are still typically less expensive than other renewable technologies such as solar and geothermal. This means that applying a similar incentive amount enjoyed by other renewable will not only be effective in encouraging more wide scale adoption of this technology, but that it can also make this technology affordable for lower income homes. Even traditional stove installations are still nowhere near the scale that they could be at.