Episode 56AQ to 56 A U, March 25, 2023, Episode 56AQ thru 56AU, March 25, 2023, Count PM2.5 at World Biomass Stacks, Count at Residential wood burning stacks

Ep 56AQ Kansas to Letter from N G O’s against Biomass (wood) burning 1 of 2 Ep 56AR Letter from N G O’s against Biomass (wood) burning 2 of 2, Missouri to New Hampshire Ep 56AS New Hampshire to U N Report 1 of 2 Ep 56AT U N Report 2 of 2, North Carolina to Wisconsin heat pumps 1 of 2 Ep 56 A U Wisconsin Heat Pumps 2 of 2 to U K Wales

Residents Against Wood Smoke Emission Particulates (see RAWSEPresidents.wordpress.com and Scroll Down for PDFs of articles with U R L’s to search on, and on the website are links to 10 minute Tiktok and Youtube videos and 30 minute podcasts on Spotify and Podbean).

United States

President Biden’s administration has created programs to help Rural Residents including senior Rural Residents, with electrification and small dollar mortgages. This will make it easier for rural residents to transition away from wood burning and to clean energy sources for home heating.

6.5 billion in U S Biden Budget for Rural Electrification and 13.5 for tech assistance for Rural Electrification. Capacity building.

30 million HUD healthy homes 10M for rural homes, allow seniors to age in place.

FHA guarantees mortgages houses for under $100,000 small dollar mortgage pilot program within FHA.

There is an Albuterol shortage. Albuterol is one of the two main Asthma medications, used with Asthma inhalers. PBS News Hour story 3/24/2023. Some Asthma is caused by residential wood burning particulates.

Kansas, Kiowa County

Energy market for wood pellets globally threatens U.S. forests | Kiowa County Press

Kiowa County Press

Demand for wood pellets for biomass energy has increased dramatically around the world, especially in Europe where burning wood is treated as ...

Kentucky, Richardsville

Richardsville firefighter released from hospital after injury - Bowling Green Daily News

Bowling Green Daily News

... said that Taylor was hospitalized after exposure to smoke and heat and ... caused by a wood-burning stove venting into a damaged chimney flue.

Massachusetts, Boston

Woman Dies After Calling 911 to Report Fire at Her Home; 2 Kids Survive - NBC Boston

NBC Boston

Investigators say the fire appears to be accidental and they believe it started in or around the wood burning furnace and chimney.

Missouri, Trenton

RAWSEP View: Washington State’s (n g o or non-governmental organization) non-profit organization Pivot Point signed a letter, (below) along with more than 100 others in the U.S. and Canada, calling for the European Union to stop incentivizing wood burning as renewable energy. Residents Against Wood Smoke Emission Particulates hopes that forest advocates and N G O’s make the connection between burning wood, whether it is in Industrial Biomass (wood) burning or Residential wood burning, and Particulate Matter of 2.5 micrometer size (PM2.5), the perfect size to infiltrate the human lung, producing a cascade of human health problems. Wood smoke is 90% PM2.5   Wood burning produces more particulates than the most polluting fossil fuel, coal burning, a solid fuel like wood. Wood burning produces 450 times the particulates of the cleanest fossil fuel, natural gas for home heating. Alternatives to wood burning for home heat exist. The least polluting alternatives are wind and solar power for an improved electricity grid to heat homes with new heat pumps run on electricity that perform at temperatures well below zero Fahrenheit. Government programs such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (L I H E A P) can help residential wood burners transition to cleaner home heating alternatives. Low-cost, hyper-localized resident owned PurpleAir PM2.5 monitors used in the yards of near neighbors of residential wood burners can detect PM2.5 levels from residential wood burning every 10 minutes and store that information historically on PurpleAir online maps. A simple mathematical formula is used by the Environmental Protection Agency (E P A) to correlate PurpleAir data with the data of the fewer, more widely spaced $100,000 official E P A PM2.5 monitors, and both kinds of PM2.5 monitor’s data are put on U S AirNow Maps of Smoke and Fire. The PurpleAir map data could be used by governmental authorities to download even weekend and overnight PM2.5 data for a particular monitor 24 7, so that data could be accessed during normal governmental working hours, with no need to enter residences of wood burners nor certify that a certified wood stove is being used, in order to shut down residential wood burning above E P A PM2.5 safe limits. Laws or legislation has to be passed to create laws that allow PM2.5 readings from a neighbor’s yard to be used to shut down residential wood burning. The E P A safe PM2.5 limits are expected to change in 2023 to 8 micrograms per meter cubed annually and 25 micrograms per meter cubed daily. The Office of the Inspector General (O I G), the “watchdog” of the E P A, in February 2023 issued a report stating that the certification of wood stoves in the U S has been a failure, allowing sales of polluting wood stoves which are officially certified but still unsafe.

The letter, edited by RAWSEP for brevity and clarity.

https://forestdefenders.eu/115-us-and-canadian-ngos-to-eu-for-how-long-will-you-keep-destroying-our-forests-for-fuel/

115 US and Canadian NGOs to EU: For how long will you keep destroying our forests for fuel?

pdf is here.

An Open Letter to European Union Policymakers from US and Canadian NGOs:

Over the past decade, scientists, independent watchdogs, and the media have exposed the false claims and greenwashing of the wood pellet industry, documented the damaging logging practices, including in mature and old growth forests in the U.S. Southeast and British Columbia, and exposed the racial injustice of wood pellet facilities siting, yet the EU has still not changed the renewable energy policies that are driving this destruction.

We are especially concerned that the package of reforms now under consideration in the Trilogue of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) falls far short of what is needed to reduce damage from the wood pellet industry. For how long will European leaders ignore the science of climate change and treat burning woody biomass as “zero-carbon,” renewable energy? For how long will you countenance the continued destruction of forests for fuel, rather than invest in true climate solutions? A number of EU member states have lost their forest carbon sinks. Until the EU stops incentivizing burning trees for energy, member states will rely ever more heavily on importing wood pellets from the US and Canada to meet their energy needs. Scientists and NGOs from both North America and Europe have been calling on the EU to significantly reform its treatment of forest bioenergy for a decade. RED II did not deliver meaningful reforms, and the US and Canadian pellet industries have grown even further since it was adopted.

Signed,

A Beautiful Future (Massachusetts)A Community Voice – Louisiana (Louisiana)ADOS Mississippi/ ADOS Empowerment Project (Mississippi)Alliance for the Wild Rockies (Montana)Anthropocene Alliance (Florida)Athens County’s Future Action Network (Ohio)Back Bay Mission (Mississippi)Biofuelwatch US (National)Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project (Oregon)Carolina Wetlands Association (North Carolina)Castle Porter (Vermont)Center for Biological Diversity (National)Central Oregon Bitter Brush Broads Chapter/ Great Old Broads for Wilderness (Oregon)Cherokee Concerned Citizens (Mississippi)Citizens Committee for Flood Relief (Missouri)Citizens United for Renewable Energy (CURE) (New Jersey)Clean Energy Action (Colorado)Climate Action Group, Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence (Massachusetts)Coastal Plain Conservation Group (North Carolina)Colorado Democratic Party – Energy & Environmental Initiative (Colorado)Concerned Citizens of Franklin County (Massachusetts)Concerned Citizens of Richmond County (North Carolina)Conservation Council of New Brunswick (New Brunswick)Conservation North (British Columbia)Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution (National)Dogwood Alliance (US Southeast)Earth Action, Inc. (Florida)Earth Neighborhood Productions (Oregon)Ecology Action Centre (Nova Scotia)Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization (EEECHO) (Mississippi)Elders Climate Action (National)Empower Our Future (Colorado)Environmental Integrity Project (National)

Episode 56AR

Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (California)Environmental Protection Information Center- EPIC (California)Families for Clean Air (California)Fannie Lou Hamer Center For Change (Mississippi)FCCPR Climate Crisis Task Force (Massachusetts)Forest Keeper (North Carolina)Forests Forever (California)Friends of Big Ivy (North Carolina)Friends of the Bitterroot (Montana)Friends of the Clearwater (Montana)Green Cove Defense Committee (Washington)Green Snohomish (Washington)Greening Greenfield (Massachusetts)Healthy Forest Coalition (Nova Scotia)Healthy Gulf (Mississippi)I Heart Pisgah (North Carolina)Interfaith Earthkeepers Eugene/Springfield Oregon (Oregon)John Muir Project (National)Macon Farms (North Carolina)Massachusetts Forest Watch (Massachusetts)Micah Six Eight Mission (Louisiana)Mighty Earth (Washington, DC)Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Mississippi)Mississippi Rising Coalition (Mississippi)National Wildlife Federation (National)Natural Resources Defense Council (National)Nature Nova Scotia (Nova Scotia)New Alpha CDC (South Carolina)New Bethel CDC (Mississippi)New Progressive Alliance (National)Nuclear Information and Resource Service (“for a nuclear-free, carbon-free world”) (National)Occupy Bergen County (New Jersey)Old-Growth Forest Network (Maryland)One Voice (Mississippi)Oxfam (International)Partnership for Policy Integrity (National)Petal Healing Garden (Mississippi)Pivot Point (Washington)Plastic Ocean Project (North Carolina)Program Believe (Mississippi)Rachel Carson Council (Maryland)RedTailed Hawk Collective (North Carolina)RerootD Futures Initiative (Mississippi)Resist the Pipeline (Massachusetts)RESTORE: The North Woods (Massachusetts)Sav-R-Youth Sav-R -Future (Mississippi)Save Massachusetts Forests (Massachusetts)Slingshot (Massachusetts)Sound Resource Mgt. Group, Inc. (Colorado)Southern Environmental Law Center (Southeast US)Southern Forests Conservation Coalition (North Carolina)SouthWings (North Carolina)Spruill Farm Conservation Project (North Carolina)Stand.earth (British Columbia)Standing Trees (Vermont)Steps Coalition (Mississippi)Sustainable Rogue Valley (Oregon)The Climate Center (California)The Enviro Show (Massachusetts)The Imani Group (South Carolina)The Rewilding Institute (New Mexico)Third Act Ohio (Ohio)350 Eugene (Oregon)350 Salem (Oregon)350 Seattle (Washington)350 Sonoma (California)350 Triangle (North Carolina)350PDX (Oregon)350VT (Vermont)Thurston Climate Action Team (Washington)Two Degrees Northampton (Massachusetts)Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, Climate Action Group (Massachusetts)Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson (Mississippi)Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (Iowa)Vel Scott’s Healthy You (Ohio)Vermonters for a Clean Environment (Vermont)Wellspring Spa (Washington)West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Airr and Safe Jobs (California)Wild Heritage (California)Yaak Valley Forest Council (Montana)Youth United for Community Action (California)Zena Forest LLC (Oregon)Marion Edey, Founder, League of Conservation Voters (Maryland)Bill McKibben, Author, Founder, 350.org and Third Act (Vermont)

Messages from the U.S. and Canada:

John R. Spruill, Spruill Farm Conservation Project (Washington County, North Carolina)

Our farm is within the economically efficient logging radius of two wood pellet plants operated by Enviva. There is no compulsory replanting of trees.

Andy Wood, Coastal Plain Conservation Group (Edenton, North Carolina)

burning wood pellets produces more CO2 than burning coal to achieve an equal amount of electricity.

Energy market for wood pellets globally threatens U.S. forests - KTTN

KTTN

Laura Haight, U.S. policy director for the Partnership for Policy Integrity, said despite its label as renewable energy, burning wood from forests ...

Energy market for wood pellets globally threatens U.S. forests

Missouri State News   KTTN News

Overseas markets could be harming forests in the U.S. Demand for wood pellets for biomass energy has increased dramatically around the world, especially in Europe where burning wood is treated as renewable energy and heavily subsidized.

Excerpts

The UK-based company Drax Group plans to build a 450,000-ton-per-year wood pellet plant in Longview, Washington.

Director of the Washington state-based nonprofit Pivot Point, said the region has a productive wood sector. “This new wood pellet plant proposed for Longview is very different,” the director pointed out. “First of all, it’s not for the domestic market, it’s not making pellets for home stoves. It represents a substantial and entirely new source of wood fiber demand for export.”

Riggs said much of the biomass would be bound for Asia. His organization signed a letter, along with more than 100 others in the U.S. and Canada, calling for the European Union to stop incentivizing wood burning as renewable energy.

U.S. policy director for the Partnership for Policy Integrity, said despite its label as renewable energy, burning wood from forests is one of the worst activities for the environment. It releases emissions when burned and removes trees that store carbon. Haight’s organization also signed the letter to the European Union, urging it to no longer classify forest biomass as renewable. “It’s the money that’s driving this system,” Haight asserted. “If they change that policy, then this will no longer be subsidized.”

Riggs noted solar and wind energy were subsidized, and the costs have gone down dramatically. However, the same is not true for forest biomass. He emphasized plant operators have struggled to reduce the costs involved in sourcing, transporting, and burning biomass fuels.

“If they’re going to subsidize it, you kind of got to subsidize it forever,” Riggs contended. “But with wind and solar, those are already cost-competitive.”

New Hampshire

New Hampshire, Northampton

https://www.gazettenet.com/Letter-to-the-editor-50376039?fbclid=IwAR0bqeYFKiNxcR2GN_ORjGJl-v7rHObOjYllL_97p5PQcFQx9EcXvyvrozI

Burning wood destructive to environment 

3/24/2023

Of the many human activities causing global warming, burning wood ranks near the top for destructiveness and sheer stupidity. Here we have governments giving carbon credits — literally paying people — to grow trees and preserve forests so that these living organisms can do their critical work absorbing carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, and storing it away in the form of wood and other biomass; and the Gazette prints a frontpage headline “A place for wood in state’s green future?” [March 21] suggesting that the practice of burning wood and putting all of that CO2 back in the atmosphere is somehow environmentally beneficial.

Are you nuts? Yes, you can “clean up” the problem of particulates in wood smoke; but that is not a principal cause of global warming: if you burn, you liberate greenhouse gases — this is what “burning,” also known as oxidation, does. Right now, we need every tree we have — and we need the wood of dead trees to remain as wood for as long as possible to minimize atmospheric greenhouse gases. Biomass power generation and heating liberates massive amounts of greenhouse gas further fueling climate change, period! It is no different than oil or natural gas and destroys trees.

Northampton (letter to the editor)

Episode 56AS

New Hampshire

RAWSEP View: In New Hampshire, deliberate misinformation about wood burning, to aid the wood burning industry. The wood burning industry can receive government subsidies at the cost of human health, and at the cost of hastening climate change at the same time. There is really no place for burning wood in New Hampshire’s green energy future, since wood burning is not carbon neutral, and pollutes with PM2.5 at a greater level than coal burning, and at 450 times the level of natural gas burning. The words “fossil fuel” may trip off the tongue, but the plain description “residential wood burning” needs to be included in the lists of Carbon emitters, which are not Carbon Neutral.

Climate Change at Home: A place for burning wood in state's green energy future?

Daily Hampshire Gazette

Proponents of modern wood heating systems, fueled by either wood pellets or dried wood chips depending on the size and operation of the heating system ...The center touts automated wood heating systems, which work like a gas/oil boiler or furnace except that they burn wood instead of fossil fuels.

New York, New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/opinion/letters/climate-change.html

To the Editor:

Re “Earth Is Nearing the Tipping Point for a Hot Future” (front page, March 21):

I can’t begin to express the deep grief I feel after reading about the new U.N. climate report, which spells out our challenge more plainly than past reports and is more specific about time lines.

As your article says, we need to cut greenhouse gases roughly in half by 2030 and stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by the early 2050s if we are to have a 50 percent chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Considering the actions of the leading offenders — China, the United States and other countries — it is patently clear that we’re not going to make even this conservative goal.

Humans will not disappear from the earth, but we can expect apocalyptic death and destruction, hints of which we’re already seeing: floods, fires, famine, frightened migrants chasing safety and authoritarian governments rising to control borders.

I’m 81, and I’ll be dead by the time the worst happens, but my grandchildren will not. Can we not think to protect future generations, and the earth they’ll inherit? Our problems are not chiefly economic and political — our problems are spiritual: They have to do with values and meaning.

Marilyn SewellPortland, Ore.The writer is minister emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Portland.

To the Editor:

Political liberals and conservatives, religious and nonreligious people of every stripe, residents of every state and nation, and every generation need to act quickly to avert the worst of climate change to protect our only home, planet Earth.

Our family has done all it can to lower our carbon footprint in housing and transportation, and while individual actions are a crucial part of averting a climate crisis, real change can come only on a societal level by electing political leaders who will act for the good of all, not just for the few.

Unless there is a secret alternative planet, politicians who deny that our planet Earth is warming rapidly will suffer the same consequences as their constituents.

New York, United Nations on Climate Change

RAWSEP View: The information missing from this IPCC report (below) is the Carbon Pollution count at the stacks of Biomass Plants around the world. Even if Carbon Pollution count from the stacks of Biomass Plants around the world, missing from the world’s total Carbon pollution count, was made and DISCLOSED, the world’s total Carbon pollution count would be missing MANY of the counts at the stacks (or fence line also known as yards of near neighbors with PurpleAir PM2.5 monitors) of Residential wood burners around the world. PM2.5 monitors have to be near to PM2.5 pollution sources to catch the count at hyper-localized areas, such as residential areas, where wood is burned. There are not enough PM2.5 monitors near residential wood burning sources yet to get a complete count of the pollution they emit. RAWSEP will see if Japan, unique among nations of the world in requiring count and disclosure of carbon count at stacks of Japan’s Biomass plants (starting in April 2023) will reveal the percentage of Biomass stack Carbon count in comparison to Japan’s “paper” Carbon count required to meet its Climate Goals. Japan is now required to count and disclose Carbon at the stacks of Biomass plants (in Japan), but Japan does not have to include Biomass stack Carbon Count in Japan’s total Carbon Count toward meeting Japan’s Climate Goals. Each nation of the world’s Climate Goals are “paper Climate Goals”, not Climate Goals based on reality, since “paper Climate Goals” exclude at stack Biomass Burning Carbon. If the percentage that is being ignored in Japan’s Climate Goals is disclosed by Japan, a percentage being ignored by all other nations can be estimated, and we can see how far off “paper Climate Goals” are from the real goals that must be met to stop us from getting to 1.5 Celsius. Knowledge is power, and knowledge can be impetus to faster change to clean energy sources, rather than being bogged down by false economic arguments against their demise by Biomass burning and residential wood burning vested interests. Replacement of biomass (wood) burning and residential wood burning, with the clean energy of wind, solar and geothermal, and replacement of home heating of the past with heat pumps can’t come soon enough.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/20/climate/global-warming-ipcc-earth.html?searchResultPosition=1

Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The Next Decade Is Crucial, U.N. Panel Says.

A new report says it is still possible to hold global warming to relatively safe levels, but doing so will require global cooperation, billions of dollars and big changes.

Published March 20, 2023Updated March 21, 2023

Excerpts edited by RAWSEP for brevity and clarity.

Make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from overheating beyond 1.5 C, says a major new report released on Monday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, issued a report of  the ways the planet is changing. Global average temperatures are estimated to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels in “the first half of the 2030s,” as humans continue to burn coal, oil and natural gas.

1.5 C holds a special significance in global climate politics: Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, virtually every nation agreed to “pursue efforts” to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond that 1.5 C, scientists say, catastrophic heat waves, flooding, drought, crop failures and species extinction will happen.

But Earth has already warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the industrial age, and, with global fossil-fuel emissions setting records last year, that 1.5 C goal is quickly slipping out of reach.

Require industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2030 and then stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050s. If those two steps were taken, the world would have a 50 percent chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Last year, China issued permits for 168 coal-fired power plants of various sizes.

Strategies are now available for reducing fossil-fuel emissions, such as scaling up wind and solar power.

The report, approved by 195 governments, says that fossil fuel infrastructure — coal-fired power plants, oil wells, factories, cars and trucks across the globe — will already produce enough carbon dioxide to warm the planet roughly 2 degrees Celsius this century.

Earth is likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade.

Many scientists have pointed out that surpassing the 1.5 degree threshold will not mean humanity is doomed. But every fraction of a degree of additional warming is expected to increase the severity of dangers that people around the world face, such as water scarcity, malnutrition and deadly heat waves.

The new report is a synthesis of six previous landmark reports on climate change issued by the U.N. panel since 2018, approved by 195 countries and based on thousands of scientific studies. Taken together, the reports represent the most comprehensive look at the causes of global warming, the impacts that rising temperatures are having on people and ecosystems across the world and the strategies that countries can pursue to halt global warming.

Episode 56AT

Many of the most dire climate scenarios once feared by scientists, such as those forecasting warming of 4 degrees Celsius or more, now look unlikely, as nations have invested more heavily in clean energy. At least 18 countries, including the United States, have managed to reduce their emissions for more than a decade, the report finds, while the costs of solar panels, wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles have plummeted. Food production is coming under strain. The world is producing more food each year, thanks to improvements in farming and crop technology, but climate change has slowed the rate of growth, as the world’s population soars past eight billion people.

The world is seeing record-shattering storms in California and catastrophic drought in places like East Africa. But by the 2030s, as temperatures rise, climate hazards are expected to increase all over the globe as different countries face more crippling heat waves, worsening coastal flooding and crop failures. Mosquitoes carrying diseases like malaria and dengue will spread into new areas.

A wide array of strategies are available for reducing fossil-fuel emissions, such as scaling up wind and solar power, shifting to electric vehicles and electric heat pumps in buildings, curbing methane emissions from oil and gas operations, and protecting forests.

But that may not be enough: Countries may also have to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, relying on technology that barely exists today.

The new report is expected to inform the next round of United Nations climate talks this December in Dubai, where world leaders will gather to assess their progress in tackling global warming. At last year’s climate talks in Sharm el Sheik, language calling for an end to fossil fuels was struck from the final agreement after pressure from several oil-producing nations.

The World Resources Institute is an environmental group. “The I.P.C.C. makes plain that continuing to build new unabated fossil fuel power plants would seal that fate,”. IPCC is the abbreviation for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, responded by saying that oil and gas companies were working on technologies to curb emissions such as carbon capture, but that policymakers “must also consider the importance of adequate, affordable and reliable energy to meet growing global needs,” said Christina Noel, a spokesperson for the institute.

A climate scientist at the University of Leeds helped write one of the panel’s earlier reports.

North Carolina, Durham, Duke University

RAWSEP View: “Burn bosses” do not impress RAWSEP. Avoiding wood burning should always be the goal.

Prescription for Climate Change - Duke Today

Duke Today - Duke University

These smaller fires, run by burn bosses, burn just enough for positive effects and restoring the ... graphic showing wood burning cookstove.

Massive wildfires are on the rise and climate change is making them worse. But… wildfires aren’t naturally a bad thing. They clean up debris, bring back nutrients, and some trees need them to seed. The problem? They’re getting way too hot and severe. So, Duke experts are working on lighting forests on fire – on purpose – with prescribed burns. These smaller fires, run by burn bosses, burn just enough for positive effects and restoring the environment.

North Dakota, Fargo

Sauna Festival planned April 1 at the Plains Art Museum - InForum

InForum

It is heated with a wood-burning stove. By Forum staff. March 22, 2023 at ...

FARGO — The Red River Finns will host a Sauna Festival April 1 at the Plains Art Museum, 701 1st Ave. N.

Folkways' Log the Sauna will be set up in the parking lot from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Log the Sauna, a woodfire barrel sauna, will host up to six people for each one-hour session.

Vermont, Mendon

Mendon house fire kills woman - VTDigger

VTDigger

... her out of the burning residence and to an ambulance,” police said. ... appears to have originated near a chimney and wood-burning furnace.

Police identify woman who died following Mendon fire - WCAX

WCAX

Investigators say the fire appears to be an accident that started in or around the wood-burning furnace or chimney. Related Story:.

Vermont

Cheryl Joy Lipton: Key elements missing from Vermont climate change plans - VTDigger

VTDigger

Wood burning isn't leaving Vermont soon, but to increase burning wood by ... Ms. Lazorchak's directive: Greenhouse gas emissions from wood are to ..

Washington State, Clallam County

State is offering $500 to scrap your old, uncertified wood stove or insert - My Clallam County

My Clallam County

And for the most part, it's burning wood waste. It's either burning indoor stoves for heat or it's burning yard waste and land clearing.

Washington, DC

RAWSEP: Is Residential Wood Burning as a source of PM2.5 covered in this Climate Camp?

5.3 Get Up to Speed on Federal Climate Policy with ...

Environmental and Energy Study Institute

https://www.eesi.org › podcasts › view › 5.3-get-up-to...

2 days ago — Podcast episode of The Climate Conversation recapping the four-part briefing series Congressional Climate Camp.

5.3 Get Up to Speed on Federal Climate Policy with Congressional Climate Camp

Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Black carbon is a part of fine particulate matter or PM 2.5. ... carbon as a component of PM 2.5 as well as ozone produced from methane or really ...

Over the past two months, EESI has been running a four-part briefing series called Congressional Climate Camp to help get Congressional staff up to speed with the legislative process and key opportunities for climate mitigation and adaptation action. This series covered four topics: budget and appropriations; public polling; non-CO2 greenhouse gases; and the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We had 17 amazing speakers across the panels share their knowledge and expertise with our audience. Series: https://www.eesi.org/2023climatecamps

Wisconsin

https://www.wpr.org/heat-pumps-can-withstand-wisconsin-winters-heating-and-cooling-furnaces-air-conditioning?fbclid=IwAR3RRI8Joen8bHQpFdIYsk_byQLfhMtoHHx4sCRMz1EzxLFFGfRy1UWfYgI

How do heat pumps fare in Wisconsin's climate?

Electric heat pumps outsold traditional gas furnaces for the first time ever in 2022. We talk with a local HVAC heat pump specialist for what you need to know about the trending home technology.

March 08, 2023

Heat pumps can withstand Wisconsin Winters

Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR)

Excerpts edited by RAWSEP for brevity and clarity.

Yes, heat pumps can withstand Wisconsin winters, heating and cooling specialist says.

Sales for heat pumps surpassed gas furnaces for the first time in 2022.

March 23, 2023. As more government incentives become available to install energy efficient systems, electric-powered heat pumps are growing in popularity.

Last year, the sales of heat pumps surpassed gas furnaces for the first time, The New York Times reported last month. While gas furnaces generate heat, heat pumps use electricity to transfer heat.

But can heat pumps withstand Wisconsin’s frigid winters?

"We have proven that time and time again," said a residential estimator and heat pump specialist (TH) for Midwest Heating and Cooling in Mukwonago. He talked about tax rebates, energy efficiency and maintenance. 

The following was edited for brevity and clarity.

What is demand for heat pumps like in Wisconsin?

It's pretty high. a lot of people are going the solar route and trying to get off of natural gas. I think we'll see more and more of it in the future.

Is it a misconception that heat pumps won’t work in Wisconsin because it can be so bitterly cold?

TH:  Technology has really come a long way, and we try to tell people, "No, it does work."

Episode 56 A U

What about heat waves? How can heat pumps handle really hot weather? 

TH: They're even better than your traditional air conditioning system, because the ones we like to use (have) an inverter technology. They can get 10, 20 or 30 percent of your energy costs and really adjust themselves. They’re extremely efficient in comparison to most standard air conditioners.

Are upfront costs for heat like pumps more expensive than traditional, conventional furnaces?

TH: Yes and no. The government has this rebate system. Initially, you're going to spend a little more. Right now you can qualify for a $2,000 tax credit. Focus on Energy (offers) $1,300 dollars. Right off the bat there is $3,300 that will come off of the cost.

What is maintenance like in these systems? 

TH: Same thing as getting a standard tune-up. We just need to come out and check your pressure levels, check your refrigerant levels. Think about it as like getting an air conditioning tune-up. It's really not that much different.

Can you explain the distinctions between air-to-air, water-source and geothermal heat pumps? 

TH: The air-to-air heat pump is going to be the traditional heat pump. It almost looks like an air conditioner. It draws the outdoor air and, depending on the temperature, (it is) either going to warm or cool that air and then send it through.

Your water-to-air-source heat pump is going to draw outdoor air and use a water-based system with a hydronic system that's going to run through a forced-air system.

Then your geothermal is a ground loop that you're going to have a drilling company drill. You're going to run that through, again, a forced-air system. But that is a little bit more of an intricate process.

What is the most popular option with customers? 

TH: Air-to-air. There are only a few air-to-water source systems, and geothermals are either base-restrictive or cost-restrictive. So, the air-to-air is the most popular.

What is the typical lifespan of an air-to-air unit you install now? 

TH: A lot of people say 10 to 15 (years). you could probably get 15 to 20 years out of them. 

Related Content

Wisconsin, Stoughton

RAWSEP View: If the mothers with children in a daycare in Stoughton, Wisconsin are upset about the particulates from diesel fuel affecting the health of their children in daycare, shouldn’t they be more upset about the particulates from residential wood burning affecting the health of their children when the children return to their homes at night? In London and other parts of the United Kingdom, PM2.5 from residential wood burning has surpassed traffic emissions for the last few years. That has prompted more regulation and shutting down of residential wood burning in the United Kingdom, to protect public health.

Webbleworld in Stoughton, WI. Channel3000.com. Mothers upset about Kwik Trip gas station planned near the childcare center, because of Diesel fumes (PM2.5)

Channel 3000

https://www.channel3000.com › news › stoughton-paren...

A proposal for a new Kwik Trip in Stoughton is not getting the usual Wisconsin welcome as area parents concerned about the site's proximity ...

Parents concerned about proposed Kwik Trip gas station next ...

https://www.channel3000.com › top-videos › parents-co...

A proposal for a new Kwik Trip in Stoughton is raising concerns about its proximity to a daycare facility. ​

Canada, British Columbia, Salt Spring Island

Wood-burning issues, stoves and rebates explored | Gulf Islands Driftwood

Gulf Islands Driftwood

So many of us rely on wood stoves for our home heating on Salt Spring and the Southern Gulf Islands, but have you considered the cost of burning ...

Canada, Ontario, Flamborough

Limestone company decides not to burn garbage after Flamborough residents oppose project - CBC

CBC

Carmeuse Lime Limited has decided to not burn tire cord, wood pulp and unused diapers as an 'alternative low-carbon fuel' source, after residents ...

Australia, New South Wales, Curtin University

https://www.abc.net.au/perth/programs/wa-afternoons/controlled-burns/102137722?fbclid=IwAR2ZfyxRoui8bRCCMtSNCyCYR0tMotyTMOvmZ-fvO6Jb5_GhPMRS_mUrlq8

Excerpt edited by RAWSEP for brevity and clarity.

New research suggests controlled burns are doing more harm than good.

Prescribed burning has been used since the 1960s and is theoretically "lighting a small fire to stop a big one", but does it work? 

Curtin University's Adjunct Associate Professor is the lead author of research that suggests prescribed burns are doing more harm than good. 

"There's always the argument that if we don't do these burns, they will be replaced with wildfires that release even more carbon and produce even more smoke," says the Professor.

"What we are finding is it's doing quite the opposite in a lot of areas. It's encouraging the big fires, not reducing them."

Professor Zylstra's research is based in the southwest of Western Australia (W A) and looks at how the tingle trees regenerate after fire.

United Kingdom

U K, Scotland

In Scotland, making whisky with energy from wind, wood chips and tides - The Washington Post

The Washington Post

One of the early decisions the Nc'nean distillery made was that they would not flavor their spirits by burning peat during the kilning of the malt.

U K, Wales

RAWSEP: Wales’ government is not proposing to ban wood burning stoves in Its Air Quality and Soundscapes Bill.

Polluting drivers in Wales could face M4, A470 payments - BBC News

BBCCouncils will get new powers to enforce smoke control areas, ... But the government is not proposing to ban wood-burning stoves in the legislation ... entitled the Environment (Air Quality and Soundscapes) Bill.