Outdoor wood boiler owners followed the law

Be there: 5:30 p.m., Roosevelt Middle School, Cedar Rapids, Linn County supervisors' public hearing.

Energy independence is a hot topic these days. Our government, via the Department of Energy, has encouraged us to alter our lifestyles, incorporate renewable energy sources, and decrease our dependence on foreign fossil fuels.

We listened. We believed. We researched regulations. We followed existing rules. We changed our lifestyles. We gave up the convenience of merely turning on a thermostat for heat, and now “they” are trying to change the rules and penalize us.

Owners of outdoor wood boilers (OWB) are conservationists by nature. We burn wood felled by storms or cut down for construction and road projects.

We do not “cut down forests” or “add poisons to the air” as has been charged. Wood we use will be burned by the DOT or in open fields. The BTUs generated reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and the energy is not “going up in smoke” as in open burning.

We invested several thousand dollars in the installation of our OWBs and all the ancillary equipment in a good-faith effort to participate in our nations' renewable energy initiative.

The new 105-page ordinance being considered by the supervisors contains regulations that would punish this good faith effort by existing OWB owners.

OWB owners are requesting to be grandfathered, as these units were installed legally, under the existing regulations. Anything less would be wrong.

Cindy Golding

Cedar Rapids