Over at Right Wing News, our Fellow Swamp Stopmer, Sister Toldjah, notes the Eco-Nazis are at it again: [1]
—- The SF Chronicle reported earlier this month [2] that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is considering a ban on the use of … residential fireplaces:
It would be illegal to use residential fireplaces on nights with poor air quality under a rule being considered by Bay Area air regulators.Over the next three weeks, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District will hold workshops to gauge public opinion on the proposal, which would follow similar bans in Sacramento County, the San Joaquin Valley, and such Bay Area cities as Mill Valley, where people who disobey the city’s wood-burning law are already subject to stiff fines.
Spurred by growing evidence that shows smoke from wood-burning is as bad or worse than smoke from cigarettes, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is trying to reduce the amount of harmful particulate matter that people breathe. Children, the elderly and those with respiratory illnesses are particularly susceptible to smoke particles that emanate from wood-burning fireplaces.
The minute particles, which enter nasal passages and lungs, can cause asthma, bronchitis, lung disease and heart disease, according to health experts.
The workshops, which start Wednesday in Oakland, are designed to solicit comments and explain the proposed regulation, which would cover wood-burning stoves as well as indoor and outdoor fireplaces. On days in the Bay Area when particulate matter is at its worst, wood-burning is the greatest contributing factor, accounting for 33 percent of the pollution, according to the air district. The problem is especially acute in winter, when fire-place use is high.
[…]
Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency strengthened its particulate standards, reducing by almost half the amount of such particles that can be released into the air. In the past 10 years, a growing number of Bay Area cities – including Oakland, Union City, Fremont and Los Gatos – have limited wood-burning devices. In Mill Valley, first-time violators are warned before facing a $150 fine.
[Air district spokesman Karen] Schkolnick said the Bay Area district’s wood-burning law would mirror the regulations used in Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley. During the 2006-07 winter, the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District – which covers San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties as well as part of Kern County – issued 192 tickets to residents. The first fine is $50. Repeated violations can lead to fines of between $100 and $1,000, district spokeswoman Jaime Holt said.
In lieu of paying a fine, first-time violators can attend a two-hour “residential wood-burning compliance school,” where they learn about the pollution hazards of wood-burning, Holt said.
Most violators in the San Joaquin Valley are initially reported by concerned neighbors, Holt said.
[3]I swear, you cannot make this stuff up. Most people burn their wood-burning fireplaces as either their sole source of heat or as an additional source of heat so as not to have a sky-high electric bill. So you’d think that it would be a good thing that people are utilizing wood-burning fireplaces, because using gas and/or electricity as a source of heat supposedly increases the size of your “carbon footprint.”
That should be the first indication, that no matter how far you bend over, you’re not going to be left off the hook, much less win a round. IN the end, this is not about sensible alternatives, this is about the power to decide who gets to use energy. And indeed; that’s all this ever was about.
Another example; the environmentally whacko left likes talking about reducing dependency on foreign oil. Yet, raised the possibility of drilling for our own, domestically, and that’s off limits too. Again; this is not about viable alternatives, this is about their power.
The faster we learn this lesson, the faster we can get to drilling our own oil.