YEP, here in the wacky west coast in Southern California, you too can go to jail for using wood logs in your own fireplace ! I heard this on the news the other day (KFIam) its a legitimate proposal. Whats next ?Outlawing blue eyeshadow for blondes? Now, we will have to hide the wood pile in our bomb shelters. OOPS !I DON'T HAVE A BOMB SHELTER OR A BASEMENT! I will just have to add a new basement to my husbands honeydo list. Now back to the subject of crazy stupid laws. New builders are already required to have gas fireplaces only. Classic homes with original fireplaces should be grandfathered in.I have copied below an article rebutting this inane proposal.
Up in Smoke: Common Sense GuestWords
By Walter Moore
Use a fireplace, go to jail.
The Philosopher Kings of the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) have decided that government must stop you from burning wood in your fireplace.
The AQMD -- which is funded with $125 million of your money each year - just made it illegal to install wood-burning fireplaces in new homes, and adopted regulations to stop you from using your existing fireplace on days they deem too polluted. In a region where massive wildfires are as routine as televised car chases, these kill-joys want to stop you from burning logs? Are you kidding me?
We've got ten jillion cars and trucks stuck in traffic, idling, for about 18 out of every 24 hours. We've got a governor who fires up the Gulfstream twice a day to commute from L.A. to Sacramento . We've got
kids getting shot while minding their own business. And yet we need a
new law to ban the burning of logs in fireplaces? Really?
Maybe I've led a sheltered life, but I don't remember ever hearing about a coroner listing, as the cause of death, "lived in a city with wood-burning fireplaces."
Laws like this make you wonder what they're smoking at the AQMD. Wonder no more: our city's representative on the AQMD's board is Jan Perry. That's right: the same City Council Member who wants to "protect" you from fast food in South L.A. because you're too fat and stupid to decide what to eat and where.
Remember common sense? I really miss it, especially when it comes to people who have the power to tax and regulate.
People used to understand the concept of "priorities" and "reasonableness." Now we've created so many agencies that they need to manufacture new problems to justify their continuing existence and ever-increasing funding.
The AQMD will never issue a press release saying, "The federal and state Environmental Protection Agencies, along with county and city agencies, have pretty much taken care of everything, and since we've gotten to the point of regulating wood-burning fireplaces, we recommend that our agency be disbanded."
Okay, enough ranting from me for one day. I'll think I'll go buy a McBreakfast and light up a cigar just to spite the Philosopher Kings.
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