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Burning more wood for heat could save homeowners money in oil-dependent Maine, but a task force in the nation's most forested state cautioned that care is needed to avoid health problems and damage to the wood products industry.
[This is an EXCERPT: read the whole article here. -Ed.]
Burning more wood for heat could save homeowners money in oil-dependent Maine, but a task force in the nation's most forested state cautioned that care is needed to avoid health problems and damage to the wood products industry.
Les Otten, chairman of a wood-to-energy task force formed by Gov. John Baldacci, suggested that a 10 percent shift from oil to wood would be significantly beneficial.
Some 440,000 households in Maine use an average of 900 gallons of oil a year, the report said. At current prices, that means each family will spend an average of $4,100 on heat this winter.
The report proposed that the state encourage the conversion of old polluting oil-fired and wood-fueled systems through tax incentives or a direct "buy-back" program to help homeowners and small businesses replace older furnaces, boilers or stoves with more clean-burning equipment.
Photo credit: Steve Roe 
