The EPA is about to essentially end the use of wood as a fuel across America. There are new proposed regulations that would require wood stoves and heaters to reduce emissions by large amounts. The net effect of the regulations would be to price those wood heaters and stoves off the market. So does it really matter? The answer is clearly YES.
Right now, 2% of the country heats its homes with wood. That means that six million plus people depend on wood as a heating fuel. More people use wood for cooking. For the most part, these people are lower income rural dwellers. In other words, the new regulations take direct aim at the rural poor. Once again, the Democrats are pushing a regulation that hurts the very people that they claim to represent. People who now are able to heat their homes with the wood from their own land will eventually be forced to come up with cash to pay for other heating sources. Many will prove unable to pay, and we will, no doubt, hear from the Democrats about the need for a federal program to help the rural poor pay for their heating bills.
The most important part of this story, however, is this simple fact: the elimination of wood as a fuel in America will not have an appreciable effect on the emission of carbon dioxide, so it will have zero effect on global warming, even by the terms of the global warming alarmists. This change will also have essentially no effect on the air quality of the country in other regards. It is a regulation that is being passed for what is best described as "environmental purity". In other words, the regulation will let some regulators at the EPA and environmentalists at the Sierra Club feel that they have done something positive (even though they will not have.) In truth, all they will accomplish is further to impoverish some already rather poor people.
Right now, 2% of the country heats its homes with wood. That means that six million plus people depend on wood as a heating fuel. More people use wood for cooking. For the most part, these people are lower income rural dwellers. In other words, the new regulations take direct aim at the rural poor. Once again, the Democrats are pushing a regulation that hurts the very people that they claim to represent. People who now are able to heat their homes with the wood from their own land will eventually be forced to come up with cash to pay for other heating sources. Many will prove unable to pay, and we will, no doubt, hear from the Democrats about the need for a federal program to help the rural poor pay for their heating bills.
The most important part of this story, however, is this simple fact: the elimination of wood as a fuel in America will not have an appreciable effect on the emission of carbon dioxide, so it will have zero effect on global warming, even by the terms of the global warming alarmists. This change will also have essentially no effect on the air quality of the country in other regards. It is a regulation that is being passed for what is best described as "environmental purity". In other words, the regulation will let some regulators at the EPA and environmentalists at the Sierra Club feel that they have done something positive (even though they will not have.) In truth, all they will accomplish is further to impoverish some already rather poor people.
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