The mecca of oil, Saudi Arabia, seems to have a distribution problem when it comes to sharing its black gold with less fortunate residents. To stop the felling of trees and bushes for firewood, the Kingdom has banned trade in wood produced domestically and encouraged imports.
'Alternative' Energy Fuels Central Asia
Soaring firewood, diesel and coal prices are sending people scurring for alternative ways to heat their homes in Uzbekistan. "Coal is fuel for rich people," says one resident. And "alternative" fuel means going back to age-old practice of heating homes with domestic animal manure. .
Environmental Concerns in UK Leads to Wood Heating
Unlike in the US where fossil fuels are still relatively cheap and have more policy protections, in England environmental concerns are leading more people to avoid fossil fuels and switch to wood. A Shropshire stove firm has seen an increase in the amount of people thinking green and buying a wood burning stove.
National
Healthy Hearths Program Offering $200 Incentive
CA: AQMD, the air pollution control agency for portions of LA, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, is offering customers a special incentive to switch to gas logs.
$1,500 Vouchers for Woodstove Upgrades
MA: The American Lung Association of Massachusetts is giving up to $3,000 to upgrade your woodstove. $1,500 vouchers are available for a new EPA-certified woodstove, or $2,000 for a pellet or gas stove.
Old Stoves, But They're Still Hot
ME: A century ago, the letters "EPA" were just part of the alphabet. Yet then, as now, efficiency was on the minds of Mainers weary of feeding log-hungry fireplaces to stay warm. Many of the innovative heaters are still in service.
Maine Fuel Report Now Includes Pellets and Cord Wood
ME: For the first time, wood pellets and cord wood have been included in the weekly heating fuel survey produced by the Office of Energy Independence and Security for the State of Maine.
Company Touts Efficiency Benefits of Indoor Boiler
MN: Where he once burned 12 cords of wood each winter to run an outdoor wood boiler heating system, he now is down to four cords with the indoor Kuuma.
NJ: This year Wharton State Forest discontinued the homeowner firewood cutting program. Was this to allow for politically connected interests to harvest the standing dead and fallen timber?
NJ:
Lawmakers will soon consider a controversial plan to allow commercial lumberjacks to chop and sell trees from New Jersey's prized state-owned forests, a first-of-it's-kind measure that has outraged many scientists and environmental groups.
Kiln-Dried Firewood Operation Doubling Capacity
NH: A kiln-dried firewood operation which turns trees which had been standing in the woods on Monday into cut, split and dried wood by Friday is about to double in capacity to keep up with growing demand.
NH: As many as 40 homeowners in Berlin, N.H., will receive subsidies to switch from heating oil systems to advanced wood pellet boilers in the next two years.
Funds Dried Up in ALA's Woodstove Upgrade Program
NH: A program offering $,1000 or more to people willing to upgrade their old, polluting woodstoves is so popular that all its money has been spoken for. Were the voucher rebates too high?
PA: The PennFuture Energy Center for Enterprise and the Environment released a new study detailing current subsidies for fossil fuels in Pennsylvania, which total $2.9 billion a year.
Wood Pellet Plant will be Located in Industrial Park
VA: Residents' anger turned into applause after a wood pellet manufacturer announced Thursday it would not biild its plant in their Courtland neighborhood.
Biomass Developers or Anti-Biomass Activists?
VT: We shouldn't be persuaded by the loudest voices at the farthest ends of the spectrum. There are good sources of information out there for us to base our decisions on rather than the biomass developers or the anti-biomass activists.
Vermont's Iconic Woodstove Makers Forge On
VT: Entering the slate-blue industrial plant that lies on the southern outskirts of Randolph is like passing through a portal back in time. The orange, ferrous haze that hangs in its dark, cavernous halls recalls the Industrial Revolution, when muscle-bound workers poured smouldering cauldrons of liquid fire into the raw materials that powered a growing nation.
Too Much Crackdown for a Few Days of Bad Air
WA: A Puget Sound Clean Air Agency task force that has been studying the problem - and taking public input - is likely to recommend several strategies sure to win few fans in the region. Among them: Requiring wood-stove owners to register their stoves and pay fees based on their efficiency.
The 
Jimmy Carter is famous for installing solar panels on the White House roof in 1979, but most people don't know that he was also a major supporter of wood heat. Records show that he had multiple stoves installed in the White House. What became of them remains a mystery. If you know anything about them, please contact us. 
The Cut Energy Bills at Home Act, introduced in the Senate with bipartisan support, would give homeowners up to a 30 percent tax credit for increasing home energy efficiency. According to Steve Nadel, for homes heated by wood, the tax credit would apply as long as any energy savings could be modeled. 
The Induo stove, produced by Austrian stove manufactured Rika, is a combined wood and pellet stove that automatically detects whether logs or pellets are being placed in the stove and regulates air intake. It also features an electronic touch-screen display. 
