Its all about Infrastructure
As you read through the articles and websites
linked under "Making It Work" on the left side of
this page, you'll note that we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Wood is competing successfully with fossil fuels from Vermont
to Idaho. There are even a number of projects under way in Colorado.
However these are pioneer efforts in a budding
revolution to establish biomass as a viable alternative heating
fuel source.
The automobile was a novelty until enough roads
and gas stations were available. It has been estimated that
wood fueled buildings are only viable if they are within a 50
mile radius of a reliable fuel source.If you think of buildings
heated with wood as so many automobiles and public and private
forestry operations as gas stations, you'll get the picture.
We need to develop and infrastructure of "roads and gas
stations" in order get "automobiles" built.
Pie in the sky you say? Not at all. Read the linked
articles. The U.S. Forest Service and local communities are
making it happen now. The question is do private forest landowners
have the initiative to join the revolution, or will they end
up walking by the side of the road?