Wood Burning/Heating Survey Fuelling Anti-Smog Fires?

By 250 News

- by T.J.,  a resident of Prince George

So, have you filled out your Prince George Woodburning Appliance and Residential Heating Survey?  Good, then perhaps you can explain for me what knowledge we intend to glean from this exercise?  Despite the title of the survey, it has little to do with overall residential heating data.  It focuses almost exclusively on burning wood, of one kind or another in one way or the other.

With the cost of heating with natural gas climbing again on the first of July , maybe they're anticipating a further switch to the economies of wood heat and plan on issuing a booklet on the best way to use this abundant resource.
I don't think so.

We purchased an expensive catalytic woodburning appliance four years ago.  The price of all alternative home heating sources was already on the rise and our income was not.  Not only does our woodstove provide adequate heat for our 1200 square foot home, but it provides a kind of warming heat that is simply unbeatable.  Yes, it takes some tending but it is worth it.  We have to make some minor modifications on how we moved air around in our home but it was common sense and little expense.  Instead of monthly heating bills of $250 or more in the winter months, our largest bill last winter was less than 40, and that includes the hot water heater.  The investment has paid for itself.  The Prince George survey makes me nervous that someone's trying to figure how to make me pay more.

The answers to some of the survey questions will produce the conclusion that some types of wood burns better than others, a modern well maintained appliance will burn more efficiently and that proper storage and protection of firewood makes for a better burn.  Duh..  Other questions concerning how many hours of how many days and what time of year we burn will provide the opportunity for some academic to compute the average emissions from wood heated homes in the city that has one of the worst records for air quality in the province.  This will be useful in figuring out how to take the heat off the pulp mills, refineries and other industrial sources that produce the bulk of the problem...  And in figuring how to make Average Joe Homeowner bare more of the cost of cleaning it up.

  Face it, the probability is that, no matter what happens, natural gas is going to continue to rise; in the summer because the Yankees need more air-conditioning electricity.  In the winter because it's cold and demand is high here.  And in the spring because the swallows have come back to Capistrano...  BECAUSE THEY CAN! 

There is no shortage of natural gas available in Canada.  Ask anyone who works in the patch how often a drilling rig produces a dry hole.  I'm told it just doesn't happen with today's technology.  If there are shortcomings in the pipeline infrastructure that delivers the gas, it must be, at least in part, because the big new pipeline projects are going directly from the Canadian gas fields to the U.S. markets.  Under the miracle agreement known as Free Trade, we can't charge them any more for natural gas than we charge ourselves. 

On low to moderate incomes, disability, retirement or other types of fixed income, many of us are looking for ways to keep our head above water in a world of expanding costs.  We live in the middle of the world's largest standing forest.  Please don't try to tell me that can't be part of the solution.

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