[Stoves] Coal v, biomass heating in the US - an inspiration from EPA

[Traveller]

Burning Coal at Home Is Making a Comeback
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/business/27coal.html?_r=0> NYT, 26
December 2008. Pictures at http://www.nytimes.com/slid
eshow/2008/12/27/business/1227-COAL_index.html.That was before Obama and
McCarthy. Back in April, EPA and Duke Power reached a settlement
<https://www.epa.gov/enforcement/duke-energy-corporation-clean-air-act-caa-settlement>
 with Duke agreed to spend a minimum of $500k "to sponsor a wood burning
appliance (e.g., stoves, boilers and fireplaces) replacement and retrofit"
with further stipulation:

"This project must give priority to areas located within a geography and
topography that make them susceptible to high levels of particle pollution
and that have a significant potential for replacement of older and/or
higher-polluting wood or coal-burning appliances,such as the Eastern Band
of Cherokee Indians community in North Carolina".


I wonder if bilateral grant aid could be conditioned on replacement of
"higher-polluting wood or coal-burning appliances" with priority to "people
in a geography and topography that make them susceptible to high levels of
particle pollution".

Parking a package of interventions in the electric utility - weak and
corrupt as they might be - had a chance of making some dent in the overall
market for cooking and water heating. Apart from biomass/charcoal or coal
technologies - in particular, heating, which has a higher utilization rate
and more consistent service standard - it should combine biogas, solar
water heating, electric induction stoves (for demand management) and
rice/stew pots. LPG suppliers can compete independently.

I am not writing this sarcastically. I had this idea back in 1992 during my
first Africa stint. There are billion dollar opportunities in avoiding
certain electrical peak load from cooking and water heating.

Power generation apart, coals have a market in arid or desert areas
(Alaska, parts of central Asia) - direct use for sparsely populated areas,
and coal gas or CHPs for areas of high population density. (Some US states
have retail  <http://lehighanthracite.com/retail-baggedbulk-coal/>coal
suppliers for coal stoves at home, or one can buy rock coal online
<http://www.buycoalonline.com/> just like dung cakes).

Wasting time and money on the "fundamental folly" of ISO work, insanity of
BAMG predictions of aDALYs, and GACC/EPA presumptuousness - with no legal
authority - in dictating stove testing protocols and stove types to the
rest of the world has benefits to some.

As far as I can tell, EPA has no authority to regulate residential
cookstoves using biomass. What business does it have galavanting around the
world to preach "clean fuels" and "clean cookstoves"? Fuels or stoves
aren't clean or dirty, processes are.

EPA has authority to spend money appopriated by the Congress. Sens. Collins
and Durbin have sponsored a "Clean Cookstoves and Fuels Support Act" bill
to authorize money for FY 2016-20; I wonder if FY 2017 appropriations are
fully approved yet.

Nikhil
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