As I replied to another FReeper earlier, we got plenty of natural gas in Texas to make it available to New England and other areas if the pipeline system were in place and the politics allowed it. BTW, I think the North Dakota oil fields are still burning off gas as a waste product because there is no market for it.
We’re starting to see some NIMBY here around Denton concerning well fracking. But Denton is a university town with a few liberal music, nursing, and artsy type students living on campus or in Denton whose liberal votes can influence the city politics. Anyway, there does not seem to be a major NIMBY movement anywhere else in the Metroplex that I am aware of.
I burn wood because I’m cheap and recycle the free usable wood cut from trees. I collect it over the summer and if I don’t have enough collected by winter, I buy a cord or two to make it through extreme cold winter days or an emergency power outage. My LOPI fireplace insert has paid for itself many times over.
Merry Christmas to you and yours...
I was the same way with the free wood when we lived in the last house and had the Jotul stove. We have a ice storm or heavy wet snow storm it seems every few years. This results typically in free wood laying on every roadside in the area.
I took two pickup truck loads to the town dump just yesterday. That was just to clean up the trees that broke on my property.
I cut the bigger stuff up and stacked it on the woodpile.
Of course, now we just have one masonry fireplace. So the cord of wood outside will probably last ten years.
There is always free wood around here if you are just willing to do the work to go get it. However, I have had a Stihl 026 and a pickup truck for 25 years. It is a little more difficult if you have a hand saw and a Prius.