Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wood-burning heaters -- including modern pollution-fighting wood stoves -- will not be permitted in new homes built in the Bay Area starting next fall, as part of a first-in-the-nation ban approved by air quality regulators Wednesday. The new rules, approved unanimously by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, will also require every seller of an existing home with a wood-burning fireplace to give buyers a disclosure statement warning of the health risks of wood smoke. Even wood stoves certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as low emission would not be allowed in new homes whose...

Development review guidelines meant to cut air pollution, the first of their kind when approved in 2010, are in limbo after a judge ruled their adoption by the region's air board was flawed. One building industry leader predicted the ruling would force a rewrite of land-use guidelines that he said delay and add costs to "infill" development of homes and businesses from San Jose to Oakland and Walnut Creek. "The air district is going to have to rescind its entire action," said Paul Campos, an attorney for the California Building Industry Association, which sued over the guidelines. Bay Area air...

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District's self-indulgent plan to pay former President Bill Clinton $150,000 for speaking at its invitation-only "summit" Oct. 21 is a grotesque waste of public and private money that is saturated with ethical conflicts. Making it worse, the air district is counting on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and its public money to help underwrite this misguided event. Bay Area elected officials on both boards should be embarrassed by the gaudy expenditures and should be called on to explain.

The owners of businesses that spew diesel fumes and other toxic gases will have to drastically cut emissions if they want to build, modify or expand their facilities, according to stringent new regulations announced Wednesday by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The new permitting requirements, which were approved Jan. 6, will force some businesses to emit two to three times less pollution than what is currently allowed or move, said Ana Sandoval, the spokeswoman for the air quality district. The district conducts several hundred health risk screenings a year, the vast majority of which are for new or...

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- You can celebrate Christmas but you won't be able to burn the Yule Log on Friday in the Bay Area. That's because the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is prohibiting the burning of wood on Christmas Day. Friday will be the season's third winter Spare the Air day. Officials are blaming what they call "stagnant weather conditions. “Air quality is unfortunately forecast to be unhealthy on Christmas Day, and the Air District is taking steps to protect public health by issuing a Winter Spare the Alert,” said Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Air District...

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is asking residents to check before burning any wood fires on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day since predicted light winds and cool air may create unhealthy air conditions across the region. . . . The district has already issued two winter Spare the Air alerts, its first one falling on Thanksgiving Day. On these days, Bay Area residents are prohibited from burning wood or manufactured fire logs in fireplaces, wood stoves, fire pits or in any other place. The ban extends to both indoor and outdoor fires.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Let's hope you weren't planning to cook that turkey over an open fire. Air quality officials have called a Spare the Air alert for Thanksgiving, meaning the burning of wood and manufactured fire logs is banned both indoors and outdoors from midnight tonight until midnight Thursday. The use of any wood-burning device, including fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves and outdoor fire pits, is illegal during that period, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said. The wood-burning ban covers Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, southern Sonoma and southwestern Solano counties.

Light a fire at home, pay a $400 fine.Burning wood fires in home fireplaces and stoves on bad air nights in the Bay Area becomes illegal again as of Sunday, when the region enters its second cold-weather season with lighting up banned during Spare the Air alerts. The crackdown, aimed at protecting public health from smoke, has two significant changes this year, the Bay Area Air Quality Management announced Wednesday: The district will slap a fixed fine of $400 on second-time violators, who received a written warning the first time they burned on a dirty-air night. Violators last year were...

(11-19) 16:21 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The fireplace police descended on the Bay Area on Wednesday. For the first time ever, residential fires are illegal under a new law, passed in July, that bans home burning on winter season Spare the Air days. The first such ban took effect at noon. Seventy inspectors from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District planned to spend the day and evening patrolling residential neighborhoods, looking for telltale chimney wisps. Violators will get warnings by mail. Repeat offenders face fines of as much as $2,000. The fireplace police say they are determined to keep...