Our EPA at work
This government agency really needs to have its funding cut by 80% or so.
They started out doing good work but when they ran out of projects that were needed, they started inventing work and seriously meddling in areas where they have zero jurisdiction.
Case in point -- from
Off The Grid News:
EPA Bans Most Wood-Burning Stoves
Wood-burning stoves offer warmth and enhance off-grid living options during cold weather months, but the tried-and-true heating devices now are under attack by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA has banned the production and sale of the types of stoves used by about 80 percent of those with such stoves. The regulations limit the amount of �airborne fine-particle matter� to 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air. The current EPA regulations allow for 15 micrograms in the same amount of air space.
Most of the wood stoves currently nestled inside cabins and homes from coast-to-coast don�t meet the new environmental standard. The EPA launched a �Burn Wise� website to help convince the public that the new regulations were needed.
Trading in an old stove for a newer stove isn�t allowed.
�Replacing an older stove with a cleaner-burning stove will not improve air quality if the older stove is reused somewhere else,� the website says. �For this reason, wood stove change out programs usually require older stoves to be destroyed and recycled as scrap metal, or rendered inoperable.�
In some areas of the country, local governments have gone further than the EPA and banned not just the sale of such stoves, but the usage of old stoves � and even the usage of fireplaces. That means that even if you still have a stove or a fireplace, you can�t burn it for fear of a fine. Puget Sound, Washington, is one such location.
Like I said in an earlier post, we just got a delivery of four cords of firewood and we will be having a fire tonight. Curtis is out in the DaveCave(tm) and there is smoke rising from that chimney. There is a wood-stove in the equipment barn shop area and I use it when I am not running the forge. Fortunately, these are all grandfathered in. I would hate to have to buy and maintain a "modern" wood stove...
Posted by DaveH at November 10, 2013 12:35 PM