East County E-views: Phasing out wood-burning fireplaces?

Last week s question:

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is trying to phase out the old-fashioned fireplace. Under its new proposal, Bay Area homes with wood-burning fireplaces could not be sold or rented unless they were equipped with cleaner devices, such as gas, under the first proposal of its kind in California. Retrofit costs could range from hundreds of dollars to $2,000 or more -- depending on the home and device installed. Meanwhile, wood-burning fireplaces would be banned. What do you think of this proposal?

 

NO WAY! This is our only source of heat. You want us to change, you pay for it. You think people just have that kind of money laying around? What s the purpose -- control, control, control.

Susan Lopez

Pittsburg

 

THE GOVERNMENT is trying to force us to use natural gas, so they as well as PG&E can collect more money. This has zero to do with pollution. If it was about pollution they would start higher up with corporations which are gross polluters. Same with the barbecue ban they are going to try next. Propane purchases equal dollars.

April Smith Phillips

 

I THINK this is VERY California and a VERY extreme measure of government control. I feel this to be a gross display of a power trip! Why don t we start "saving the air by demanding Americans to stop shipping their products over to China to be made in their factories first. Isn t it all the same air?

A warm fire in a home is both, calming and less expensive than burning gas or running the heater. You cannot even afford to be frugal and comfortable in the state we were born in anymore. This is rubbish!

Brenda Brenda

 

NO! WE are already limited to when we can use our fireplaces, outdoor fire pits or when we can control burn on our property....but taking away people s fireplaces all together is as asinine as it gets.

Kayla Larson

 

NO WAY. Already there is a ban on new fireplaces. That should be enough. Unless the government is going to pay for conversion, then it s crap that they d make the homeowner pay. What s next? A requirement everyone transfer to solar?

Jennifer Tachella Raymond

 

SERIOUSLY? I hate politics

Kim Ann

 

NO! HIT the big polluters. Leave me and others their one or two wood fires per year.

Gwen Fenolio

 

SORRY GUYS, I agree. It s hard to breathe sometimes when yours is a single story house surrounded by two stories and all three back and side neighbors use smokers, barbecue sand burn pits and smoke is pouring into our home. All pollution is destroying our air quality. We have fireplace, but do not use it -- just the smell makes me have a hard time breathing. Think of others instead of just yourselves! Peace.

Sheila Honey

 

HORRIBLE IDEA! One, you can t buy a new home with a wood-burning fireplace; why ban existing ones?

Erin Green-Astone

 

PEOPLE S REPUBLIC of California strikes again.

Raymond Ullarich

 

I M SO sick of our government trying to control every thing in my life. It s no wonder people are leaving in droves.

Sharon Metter

 

TOO MUCH government is not a good thing!

Kristi Helgesen Blach

 

ARE YOU going to ban camp fires while your at it? I mean c mon. Let s spend our energy and tax dollars doing something productive! I m going to be pretty mad if I can t have s mores.

Stephanie Whiting

 

LET S CUT down in big business polluters first.

Angelica Rusan

 

NO. NO. Do not take away tradition

Amber Ruthrauff

 

ABSOLUTELY NOT! The air quality from geoengineering is far worse a monster than a fireplace.

Vicki Brown-Rayner

 

NOOOOOO!!!!! This is the stupidest idea ever!

Veronica Maria Solis

 

NOOOOOO!! f we enter another Iice agewe may need them!

Julie Pearson

 

NO! BUT you can limit farmers burning fields, which makes people have to close their windows and turn on AC!!

Jerry Martin Ingvardsen

 

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!

Trent Train Willis

 

HONESTLY, I totally disagree! I think it s ridiculous and getting out of hand. I live out here in Oklahoma now and even when my husband and I go to look at model homes to build, it seems that they hardly offer real wood-burning fireplaces anymore. I don t want a fake insert or a gas burning fireplace!! Uniece Cautiverio-Womack

 

ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!

Carla McIntosh

 

ABSOLUTELY NOT!

Lisa Kohl

 

WHAT? NO!

Lynn Cass

 

 

I HAVE only used mine about four times in the last five years and never on days when you re not supposed to. This is too extreme.

Liz Van Sandwyk

 

I AM so sick of these dishonest ploys. Keep pushing us and we will snap. Enough already! Who regulates the Bay Area air district?! Damn scammers is what they are. They need to be stopped ! his power they wield has got to be shut down!

Cheryl Williams Metzler

 

WHEN YOU change a wood-burning fireplace to a gas-burning fireplace, a permit is required. Dollars to local government. Every place the gas pipe has a 45-degree turn requires a code upgrade to an earthquake valve, which costs $800 each 10 years ago. At the end of the project, the city raises your property taxes because you have "upgraded your home. Single family homes are not the big polluters. Go after China!! Ban Products made there! Made in America, cleaner air! China is a huge contributor to poor air quality and it all blows over here, pollutants and all. GET OFF MY PROPERTY!

Barbara Damon Harrington

 

SELFISH POLITICIANS pushing their selfish wants down our throats. You have trampled liberty underfoot to the point that it is unrecognizable.

Jeff W. Strawther

 

NO, I do not agree, if a person has an EPA-approved wood-burning stove, there is absolutely no reason why they should not be allowed to burn to provide warmth for their home. The particulate matter from approved stoves is so minimal and the emissions from power plants is so great. I would much rather save electricity and burn using an approved wood burning stove during cold weather!

Michele Kuslits

 

NO WAY!

Jodi Brown Coyne

 

OUR POPULATION density demands it.

Ray Gross

 

NO!

Laura Farwell

 

NO!

Regina DeRosa Fredenburg

 

NO!

Deborah Cunning Koch Like

 

NO!

Sylvia Stanley

 

NOPE!

Charmains Unique Monie

 

BOOOOOOO HISS!

Reilly Kent

 

NO!

Deolinda Bird

 

NO!

Holly Bentley

 

NO!

Wendy Price

 

NO!

Amy Mullens

 

NO!

Stephanie Taylor

 

NO!

Becky Farris