Wood-burning Stoves Banned in New Homes in San Francisco Area

The Environmental Protection Agency’s new emission limits on wood-burning stoves may not be an outright ban, but the regulations are restricting their use and making them more expensive. And in the San Francisco Bay Area, not only will the regulations be enforced, but the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) has decided to go even further, banning all wood-burning heaters in new homes including even those certified by the EPA to be “low emission.”

 

Why wood-burning stoves? A Bay Area bureaucrat explained the reason for the ban. “We are serious about reducing the health risks associated with our residents’ exposure to wood smoke,” said Kristine Roselius, of the BAAQMD.

 

A blog called OfftheGridNews reports:

 

All 22 members of the district’s board of directors voted to amend regulations to bar the installation of wood-burning heaters in new homes starting November 1, 2016. The district consists of the nine counties that surround San Francisco Bay and includes: San Francisco County, Alameda County (Oakland), Contra Costa County, Napa County, Santa Clara County (San Jose), San Mateo County, Southwestern Solano County and Southern Sonoma County.

 

Not surprisingly, traditional fireplaces are already illegal in this area.

 

Homeowners whose wish to sell houses where the devices were installed prior to the ban must provide potential buyers with statements detailing the significant “health risks” associated with wood smoke.

 

Apparently, the statement need not contain any revelation on the danger of tyranny, however.

 

Although it may sound incredible, the board passed an ordinance that would immediately void all previously approved exemptions to the existing wood-burning prohibition. This new nullification includes the exemptions granted to residents living in areas where natural gas is not available. Anyone living in these areas will need to re-apply for an exemption that will be applicable only on “high pollution” days.

 

Remarkably, there is a smaller, more radical bloc of board members pushing for a regulation that would force owners of homes with pre-ban fireplaces and wood-burning stoves to remove them or be forbidden from selling the homes. This expanded ordinance was ultimately rejected.

 

This sort of environmental extremism is being promulgated from coast to coast. The EPA purports that “research” shows that particulate matter blown into the air by the burning of wood to heat homes is causing asthma, bronchitis, strokes, and any number of other maladies.

 

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