I thought that wood burning stoves produced a lot of particulates. If
many residents started relying more on wood burning, would there not be
a significant increase in air pollution in the city? Is the same true
for corn and pellet stoves?
Gena Berglund
Saint Paul
Working temporarily in Mpls.
Dyna wrote:
Peter makes excellent points, illustrating that the greatest gains
in energy efficiency can be made right in our own Minneapolis
structures, and pointing out the roadblocks our city has placed in the
way of anyone who dares conserve energy and switch to renewables.
I write tonight from Starbuck, where we just checked and found
this fair city has no quarrel whatsoever with our installing corn or
wood burning heating inside or outside our homes and businesses. The
population here is booming, many of the new residents fleeing
Minneapolis. The only thing holding us back now is the availability of
biomass fueled heating devices- Fleet Farm is sold out of corn stoves
and the pellet and wood stoves are going fast.!
Contrast that to Minneapolis where I spent most of the week- my
block is half empty as more homes are vacated and boarded every day.
With Minneapolis effectively outlawing biofuel burning heating about
all we can do is insulate and turn down the thermostat some more. With
property values falling and vacancies rising, there's not a lot of
incentive to even insulate... Never mind spend thousands on solar
water heating only to have it destroyed by the frequent gunfire.
About this time next year much of the occupied half of the homes
in my neighborhood will empty out too. Their gas shut off as soon as
the cold weather rule expires in the spring, they'll be getting too
cold to live in. By new years frozen pipes will burst and they'll
start going tax forfeit, as more fortunate Minneapolis exiles move to
new homes in the exurbs and beyond, and the less fortunate head south
to share crowded streets and tents with Katrina evacuees.
from sustainable Starbuck,
Dyna Sluyter
Peter Vevang writes:
That idea translates to the city, there is money to be made. People
can make a living by supporting sustainable practices. Sustainable
practices are not an economic disadvantage, they are an advantage, it
is an untapped industry. If you divide up the percentage of energy
usage, 50% of the energy we use goes toward construction, maintanance
and operation of buildings. Only 20% goes towards transportation,
cars, including air travel, ships, trucking and so on. We could
completely eliminate all SUV's and replace them with E-85 hybrids and
it would only slightly dent our energy usage. The single best way to
cut back on wasting energy in the building industry is to renovate,
repair, re-use what we have, to renovate and rebuild our existing
infrastructure in a more energy efficient way and to repair and
maintain our buildings in an energy efficient way. That is something
we can do here in the city. It would provide jobs, and it would save
money for the people owning the buildings, giving them more resources
for other projects.
Farmers needed government subsidies and help inventing the technology
for ethanol, they had a development model. What we do not have in
the city is an effective re-development model, we don't have
systematic subsidies, regulatory support or support with the
technology and building process that follow a sustainable model. Our
building codes, ordinances and approval process aren't geared toward
supporting sustainable development. Our current regulatory process
was invented in the 1940's and implemented in the 50's. We haven't
changed the fundamental principles we use for 50+ years.
I think the trick to making sustainability work is to make it
economically beneficial and to have the proper support and regulatory
system in place. If you can do that, people will come to you. You
won't be in a position of forcing people to do something they don't
want to do. We will not succeed by making others fail or punishing
them. We succeed together.
Peter Vevang
Audubon
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