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Coal power is done. No one will build a new plant, it is too expensive. Even the coal lobbyist couldn’t change anyone’s mind. Basically we are waiting for the plants to get to end of life so people can recover their money. Most plants were built in the 70-90s in the US, and there is a 50 year lifetime. The electric produced is more expensive then solar, wind and ng. There are a few places that burn biomass in the US and some in Canada but I don’t think they end up to be cost competitive either. However, when they were built, coal was the cheapest. NG gas prices hadn’t tanked, wind was still more expensive then nuclear, solar PV wasn’t projected to become cost competitive, etc.
I don’t have anything against burning wood obviously. The argument is that it can put particulate emissions into the air which is the opposition from like the heart and lung associations. The more efficiently you burn it, the more tars and such get cracked and the fewer that end up in the air plus you have more heat recovery so you don’t need as much fuel which reduces the emissions. I suspect it also reduces creosote build up in the stack that also reduces the chance of fire. I don’t disagree the regulations are a pain in the butt for a large number of people who traditionally burn wood.
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India , Pakistan , Bangladesh . Had huge planes for new coal power . Bangladesh was turned down by world bank . China does not need funding to burn more coal . A person had a law passed for them prohibiting wood be disposed to anyone other then them . no garbage pickup for tree limbs Chicago residents need to take wood to him and be charged a fee . I bought firewood from him and was charged by half face cord . Some wood needs to be taken away . and there is no one to do it .
I do not think it is even possible to reduce fire risk .
There are a number of other countries as well. That is exactly why we made the Paris agreement happen. Obama dragged china and India to the table. Which got them out of trying to copy 1st world nations by rolling out a coal based grid, and instead focus on renewables to build out their grid. Both china and india now have laws that require EV sales by 2030. Both countries were going to use coal to build out their grid, but just that change has saved a lot of emissions, even though neither country has completely stopped building coal plants.
That would actually be illegal. It could be he was the only game in town or they put out a competitive bid for it, but if they aren’t doing that, it is challegeable. They probably do have some fire restrictions and barriers to prevent a fire from spreading into the city. Which also could be hard to acquire.
We aren’t allowed to dispose of -any- yard waste in the trash can, with the exception of like poison ivy. I think that is state law. Any tree stuff you can take to certain places to dispose of and they do charge you.
That was probably an attempt to keep the volume down for the toxic waste that ends up in landfills. People shouldn’t put anything that is strictly organic in the normal trash flow. All you do is contaminate it with the chemicals in our waste stream.
But as to them charging people one of my biggest peeves is that we charge people to depose of anything it is the #1 cause for people dumping trash. Anyone who lives in a community should be allowed to take anything to the dump in a reasonable quantity for free. Now if Lowe’s wants to dump pallets of past date something no they need to pay. If a hotel wants to dump all their beds they need to pay but if a homeowner wants to throw out their bed there should be no charge or we will see trash thrown out everywhere. I lived in a small town with the dump out in the middle of nowhere. You could drive by and not even know it was on the dirt road for a long time expecally since it was just a collection site the landfill was long since closed. Then someone got the bright idea to charge the disposal fees to the end user instead of having the town budget cover them. As soon as that passed you could tell where the dump was because for about 2 miles along the dirt road there was always trash that would cost money to leave at the dump. Charge the businesses for their high volume dont worry about the avg person who might throw away their bed everyday there are not enough of them to effect the town taxes.
It was to reduce the amount of organic matter in the trash which turns to methane, and the sheer volume because we require lined pits. You also have to pay disposal fees and aren’t supposed to put anything with toxic chemicals like mercury in the trash.
My trash is figured into the water bill, and we have curbside recycling, and the have yard waste collection twice a year.
My parents township, has a monthly trash day. Where they take both recycling and trash. They charge a nominal fee for trash, but it isn’t much.
Their neighboring township does a once a year recycling/trash day.
Most of it is aimed at getting from people having their own dumps/burnpiles and/or doing what you say and just tossing stuff on dirt roads somewhere.
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This is how life goes on here. Milling wood for our bedroom lineing while the Kursk just got to self heater mode.
Now the mill is nothing close to Mr Waynes exelent machine but slowly it gets the job done
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I see enough fuel there after cutting your free wood to build and heat your home. Then to turn to charcoal for a lot of SWEM’s. Nice set up Kristijan. Cut while the sun is shining and dry enjoying the beautiful creation all around you.
I can smell the goodness of it all.
Bob
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Kristijan, good to see you keep busy during your parental leave 
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Got tractor out did plowing broke plow , done plowing . Changed hitch and started pulling trees no way to get through weeds without tractor cut several more trees that were growing at angle . Pulled down standing dead tree added chains to tow strap needed the length so I did not pull tree down on myself . Whole tree came out of ground and jumped a few feet . Hitched disk tiller and disked over plowed ground . Fixed flat tires on wood spliter so as to load truck with split wood rather then logs
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I wasn’t kind of skimming and saw what looked to be a sawmill on railroad tracks, and when you said kursk, my mind jumped to like a Kursk train line. I was imagining you using the tracks for a log carriage and dodging trains. All I could think was how the heck does he get it off the tracks fast enough to not get caught.
I thought it was funny. Sorry carry on. 
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Mid-Spring morning break-chill woodstove warming.
1st picture the half-sack rolled down compressed “fuel lump” of bark chunks, wood splinters, wood chips and wood dust burnt down:
Next picture; pulled forward, leveled out to make room for the next sack loading:
Doubled brown craft paper sack burning off:
Sack paper burnt off now and the formed woods garbage fuels lump integrity established from the released tars and now burning from the outside, inward:
Now settled into a long slow heating release:
One hour later finishing up. Time to refuel:
I actually got this idea off of a picture of an in Tokyo gasifed car refueling with a single big paper wrapped fuel lump. Versus loose wood or charcoal particles.
S.U.
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Hey now that’s an idea for charcoal refueling. Could keep the paper bags in a truck toolbox and just toss in the bag whole hog.
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The U.S. average cost for propane is $2.41 per gallon. One million BTUs of natural gas is roughly 11.20 gallons of propane. Which means for the same amount of fuel, you’ll pay $6.23 for natural gas and $26.99 for propane. The more efficient the fuel is, the less you’ll use, which plays a role in overall cost.
I guess there were years when I used mostly wood . There were more years when I used mostly propane . I could use propane more efficiently and use more wood . Spent several hours on flat tires and rusted unattached hitch ball . put nut back on hitch ball and it rusted and It took hour to get it back on truck . Not tight on there .
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HenryB. there is always more to the story than just the cents per BTU, or $'s per million BTU.
Natural gas you are tied to a City; near-in Urban supplied-to-you, GRID.
Propane is the go-forth; portable fuel.
Anywhere you can carry that tank of liquefied gold-standard-energy.
I once was, certified as able to legally work on both vehicle natural gas systems and propane systems.
Run the number of millions BTU’s in legal high pressure natural gas tanks versus standard pressure propane. No comparison. Propane wins by costs 10 to1. By weight 3 to 1.
And here is the real ass-kicker:
Me, you can/do grow wood power annually on our properties. Ha! Whether we want to or not! Tree as weeds.
Can’t grow natural gas.
Can’t grow propane.
Can’t grow gasoline or diesel fuels.
So . . . hands down, wood’s better for a true Rural.
City folks made their choices. Choices they must live with.
S.U.
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Yup once when I was a kid I was messing around with a nasty crotch in the tree couldn’t get it split drove it off the splitter a bunch of times and I could hardly get it on the splitter rolling it on the ground. I was probably about 11 it seemed bigger than I was. Finally my uncle came out and took one look at it as I finished pounding it off the wedge. He just said oh put that one back in the bucket and dump it out in the woods. There is more wood that is easier to split which just rots out there every year because we can’t harvest all the wood which falls down. He was correct I don’t remember the last time I cut a perfectly healthy tree that wasn’t in the way of a project. Anyone living on probably 5 acres or more here has all the free fuel they could ever want they just need to go work it up.
That and there is nothing better than the feeling of walking past a full woodshed to warm up near your wood stove knowing you have all the heat you could want all winter. No worries about delivery issues or the furnace not working. I have yet to see a wood stove not finish the heating season.
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I have one instance where a wood stove did not make the winter through
Neighbor down the road was the local fire marshall. He got called to his own house for a chimney fire…never got cleaned and lost the house
Proper care and a good wood stove will last a lifetime
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I went out in morning cut logs , late morning split logs . loaded wood on truck and brought spliter back to shed . Just did not want to leave spliter out on field like last night .
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I can’t bring myself to leave my tools even just on my back porch. I live a half mile away from a country road and even then we somehow have had things stolen. My mother’s pressure washer, my felling axe, her little pull behind gardening cart.
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You remind me how fortunate I am to live in a safe neighborhood with good neighbors. The last thing I thought someone walked off with was a pocket knife I was actually a little upset simply because it was one my grandfather gave me. But later that day it magically reappeared at the end of Grampa’s old hoe. Turned out there was a hole in my pocket and it fell out as I was working in the garden…
One other time recently my neighbor came over with a wrench and asked me if it was mine because he found it in his baler toolbox. Funny thing was it was. He had stopped in to ask a question about his baler and I grabbed the wrench I needed out of my baler toolbox and help him out only to put it away in the toolbox on his baler when I got done out of habit. It is nice to have good honest neighbors.
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