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.
OK, then burn bureaucrats. That might release a little bit of carbon into the environment, however, it will result in a massive future savings by eliminating a carbon producer.
GMAFB!!!
How much pollution are they causing by driving vans up and down streets to catch the polluters?
I have a gas furnace but I rely on wood. They declare burn bans from time to time but don’t publicize them very well. There’s been times when I’ve found out about the ban 4 or 5 days into it.
I’ve seen stores about them catching scofflaws but have been lucky so far. From what I’ve seen they ironically save their scrutiny for the urban areas and leave us hinterlanders alone....at least so far.
How much “small particle pollution” results from all the wood burning stoves in Alaska together as opposed to, say, one small forest fire started by a lighting strike?
stores=stories
That was so outrageous then Obama shut down the national parks, harassing people for even taking a picture, all because of him having a temper tantrum over the budget.
Great idea. No, company cars either, if they are going to use fossil fuels they need to do it on their own time and on their own dime.
If Trump can’t demolish the EPA, he should at least move it to the far northern reaches of Alaska. Maybe to Little Diomede Island so they can see Russia. Just the eviroweenies, the Russians and the polar bears floating around on their melting pieces of ice.
The EPA desk jockeys responsible for this edict believe that they are untouchable. Oh, shall I dream that these wankers shall soon receive pink slips?
There's a movie based on a non-fiction book called "Into the Wild" about a privileged kid who became a greenie in college and decided rather than get a job after graduating, he would burn his ID and go on a journey of self discovery across the nation. He works his way across the whole country until he finds his nirvana in Alaska. Then like two days later he eats a poisonous leaf and dies in agony.
Somehow hikers and greenies are inspired by this story and visit the site of his camp as some sort of pilgrimage. They don't die horribly, however, so they aren't really buying into his whole experience.
Sounds like they need a good sherif to arrest any EPA agents so cruel as to try to enforce such regulations.
Now I burn wood, and I also know that some of these regulations are for wood burners that don’t have reburners in them to make them much more efficient as well as producing less pollution. Most modern wood stoves have them. Not that I am excusing ANYTHING that comes out of DC, and the local elected sherif should make some quality cell time for the EPA if they ever end up on anyone’s doorstep.
And YES, DRAIN THE SWAMP! and end this liberal madness...
The EPA should stop wasting our Air
I pity the SOB that knocks on my door in the dead of winter and tells me I have to put the fire out.
The people that make these kinds of decisions and then actually tell their gorns to publicize it and get it printed in the paper are the first idiots I would fire and parade nude thru the streets for people to throw rotten garbage at them, in the dead of winter.
Here in CA, our regulators make the EPA look like pikers.
Several years ago, I saw a documentary on energy/’clean’ energy, etc. In one segment, they flew a helicopter over parts of Los Angeles...and they could easily identify the interior temperatures of the houses it flew over. The ‘Big Brother’ implications are endless.
They still have a number of rivers to clean up after their last Colorado mining site fiasco.
Btw, my (late) little brother was a Coastie .. Kodiak & Memphis .. respect !
And to think, forty five years ago all the Back-To-Earth hippie magazines were praising the use of wood stoves for heat!
Now I think of it, some national news shows back then praised the Vermont idea of a return to wood heat.
Now wood heat is bad.
Can’t use oil, coal, natural gas, wood. What is left for the Leftists?
King Henry, entering a hovel wet from rain: “Give me fire! Give me Warmth!”
Becket: “You will find no fire her sire.”
Henry: “And why is that!”
Becket: “Each hovel is allowed two measures of wood a year. One stick more and they are hanged.”
Henry: “My edict?”
Becket: “Your edict sire.”
Henry “GIVE ME FIRE! GIVE ME WARMTH!”
'Somehow' is right .. gotta make ya wonder how many screws are loose in a person who'd imagine such a visit would instill some kinda osmotic karma or something . . .
If any govt agency ever needed to be completely & totally done away with, it’s the EPA.
The beauty of it, it was created by exec order and can probably be obliterated the same way.
I then recommend putting all of the out-of-work EPA employees in the Alaskan wilderness. Give them plenty of food, water and a shelter. Just no means to create heat. Since they are lefties, they don’t need guns either.
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