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Posted by D. Sherman on Saturday, March 01, 2008 at 11:44:09 :
In Reply to: OT Trying to Ban Wood burning in Ohio posted by Kevin in Ohio on Saturday, March 01, 2008 at 10:06:01 :
Call them "carbon-neutral biomass energy converters" instead of "wood stoves", and you could probably get the greenies to subsidize them instead of banning them.
I don't know how many people burn wood where you are, but I sure noticed where I used to live (Everett WA) and where I live now (Wallace ID) there are a lot fewer people burning wood than there used to be. Back in the 70s, when it seemed everybody with a shop and a welder was cranking out "wood stoves" that were basically just steel boxes with a door on the front and a hole in the top, there was a chimney on every block pumping out smoke like crazy. Some of it was the fault of the stove, but most of it was the fault of people with a stove that was too big, wood that was too green, the damper closed way down, and maybe trying to burn their garbage along with their soggy wood. Washington State responded by requiring "clean air" stoves, which mainly accomplished that goal by being $2000 instead of $200 so that few people could afford to buy them.
Over the years, though, I think the main reason people gave up wood burning is it's just too much work, between cutting the wood, storing it, hauling it inside, and cleaning up after it. If you have to buy wood, you're looking at probably $1000 for a winter's supply in most cities, which is more expensive than natural gas.
It's always a sign of a bloated government looking to justify its existence when they start regulating something that's already diminishing as a problem. If there really was a problem with smoke, they could use an old-fashioned "smoke ordinance", enforced only when somebody complains, and determined by visually comparing the density of the smoke with a card that the inspector holds up. That way, as fewer people burn wood, and the remaining ones are the ones that know how to burn it cleanly, there would be less and less enforcement. This law seems designed to do the opposite -- probably create a whole new job for the building inspectors (maybe so they can keep their jobs during the housing slump?) of regulating the details of wood stove installations.
Oh, along the same lines, the main counties in Washington between Puget Sound and the Cascade mountains are banning ALL outdoor burning. That means not even any burning of weeds, slash, or brush, no matter how clean or hot. A lot of rural people are very upset about it, not only because they're now supposed to haul their brush to a transfer station, but because of the fire hazard that will result from people letting more slash and brush accumulate around their houses. But of course the city people are in control in a democracy and the city people don't like to see or smell smoke when they go for a Sunday afternoon bike ride in the country.
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