Posted on 01/02/2017 5:57:52 AM PST by xzins
Well, in the Alaskan interior, winters can be brutal. With temperatures dropping below zero, burning wood is the only viable way for Alaskans in these rather desolate areas to stay warm. Yet, government thinks this is a problem concerning small-particle pollution. In fact, the Environmental Protection Agency is so concerned that they’re mulling fining people who burn wood to stay warm. John Daniel Davidson, a senior correspondent for The Federalist (and Alaskan native) had more:
***If only the bureaucrats in Washington DC knew what the wolf-dog knew. But alas, now comes the federal government to tell the inhabitants of Alaska’s interior that, really, they should not be building fires to keep themselves warm during the winter. The New York Times reports the Environmental Protection Agency could soon declare the Alaskan cities of Fairbanks and North Pole, which have a combined population of about 100,000, in “serious” noncompliance of the Clean Air Act early next year.
Like most people in Alaska, the residents of those frozen cities are burning wood to keep themselves warm this winter. Smoke from wood-burning stoves increases small-particle pollution, which settles in low-lying areas and can be breathed in. The EPA thinks this is a big problem. Eight years ago, the agency ruled that wide swaths of the most densely populated parts of the region were in “non-attainment” of federal air quality standards.
That prompted state and local authorities to look for ways to cut down on pollution from wood-burning stoves, including the possibility of fining residents who burn wood. After all, a declaration of noncompliance from the EPA would have enormous economic implications for the region, like the loss of federal transportation funding.
The problem is, there’s no replacement for wood-burning stoves in Alaska’s interior. Heating oil is too expensive for a lot of people, and natural gas isn’t available. So they’ve got to burn something.
[…] This of course is a ridiculous situation. The EPA has no business telling Alaskans they shouldn’t burn wood to keep warm in the depths of winter. For one thing, concern over air pollution from wood smoke is misplaced. The high levels of particulate matter in places like Fairbanks in January are not the same thing as smog in Los Angeles.
The areas affected by pollution from wood stoves are relatively small because they’re the result of something called inversion. At -30 degrees Fahrenheit, smoke doesn’t rise. It drops down to ground level and settles in low-lying areas. But this doesn’t happen city-wide, it happens on a single block or street.***
Well, hopefully things will change once the Trump administration takes over on January 20.
I live in Alaska and we already burn our garbage, used pallets, sawdust and junk mail to keep warm.
>>What good are fireplaces if you can’t burn wood?
Most fireplaces are very inefficient for heating a home. Most of the heat is lost up and out the chimney.
There are much better solutions for heating with wood:
Rocket Stoves: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6qkWbxcri_eeQ8tVKaZXDb1waoCe3RQ2
Me and my big Maine Coon kitteh Olivia are sitting here nice and cozy on an 8 degree morning while the WoodPro 1500 crackles merrily away. EPA goons can ESAD.
Bureauc.rats ....
By the way, whatever happened to the Head of the National Park Service? The guy who shut down the National monuments in DC so the veterans couldn't visit?
I think it's payback time. Someone needs to lose their pension and made homeless.
They should send two EPA desk jockeys to each house to collect the fine.
THAT is the kind of “deregulation” we need.....
Time for the return of tarring and feathering.
We will have subzero (-30 and -40 are not rare) much of Feb here in northern Michigan and life goes on.
We need to relocate the entire EPA staff (whatever jobs are not eliminated) to northern Alaska. Then we’ll see whether they understand the real world they are attempting to regulate.
I am calling this rewilding by another name.
This is a joke, right? Satire?
Figures .. the bastards .. no more revenuers to disappear, ehh ?
I like how you think. Give them bicycles and let them generate their own electricity. Lead by example.
Many people live in Alaska for a reason, and kow-towing to the EPA is not one of them. Alaskans are fiercely independent. This MIGHT work in Anchorage.......anywhere else in the state.......not so much.
We live in Minnesota and my inlaws do the same. The have only woodstoves, no other way to heat their house.
The EPA needs to be disbanded. They’ve outlived their usefulness. If there were any reasonable environmental regulations, none have been added since Clinton took office. They are now just inventing boogiemen to justify their jobs.
Glad I live out of town.
Lefties, freezing people to death, for the common good.
Alaskans will tell an EPA freak to pound sand, I think.
Another nail in the EPA coffin.
LOL thinking the same thing
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