A new environmental battle is brewing
A new environmental battle is brewing, as many homeowners have been
buying wood burning stoves and similar devices to brace
themselves against the onset of winter and the expected steep increases
in home heating costs.
The crux of the problem is that wood smoke contains particles of soot
that exacerbate heart disease and trigger asthma attacks. Consequently,
USA Today
reports, officials in several parts of the country are
looking for ways to reduce the amount of smoke that will be emitted by
the nationīs estimated 37 million home chimneys and 10 million wood
stoves this winter.
Some locales are offering monetary incentives to anyone who gets rid
of a wood stove that is more than 13 years old. Others are asking
residents not to burn wood on highly polluted days. And seven
Northeastern states have petitioned the federal government to crack down
on a new innovation in wood-powered heating: outdoor wood boilers that
use water warmed by burning wood.
The EPAīs mercury reduction rule for power plants is likely to
go under the microscope again this week. The New York Times
reports that two national groups of state and local air
quality regulators are about to unveil a proposal that they say would
yield fewer mercury emissions in less time than the EPAīs rule.
Industry groups contend that the plan would drive up energy costs,
which would then be passed on to consumers -- an argument that is likely
to get a lot of traction right now (the immediately preceding item
provides one example of why). But the regulatory groups counter that the
industry groupsī cost argument is a scare tactic.
Is it me, or is this old back-and-forth starting to grate like a
phonograph playing a scratchy record with the needle stuck in a circular
groove [scritch!] stuck in a circular groove [scritch!] stuck in a
circular groove ...
Speaking of broken records, itīs hard not to feel at least a little
numb from the never-ending coverage of the aftereffects of the
hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast a couple months ago. I
keep seeing reports, many of which seem to contradict one another, about
how destructive the storms were, environmentally speaking.
The Houston Chronicle, after a lengthy, meticulous slog through the
National Response Centerīs online database, published this exhaustive
account Sunday of how serious and widespread the
environmental damage was, and is. The short of it is that the harm is
extremely serious, and very widespread. This is a must read for everyone
in our line of work. Thereīs a lot of work to be done down there,
people.
Pete Fehrenbach
is assistant managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this
column are collected in
the Inbox
archive.
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contents copyright 2005 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved.
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