Winter Spare the Air costs

   An Open letter to BAAQMD:
 Since the Oil Embargo of 1973, residents of the Bay Area have been installing wood stoves and pellet stoves to hedge against the Utility's high swings in Gas and Electric prices.  Now, on the coldest days, we get "Spare the Air" "NO BURN" days that say we are not allowed to burn SOLID FUELS.  But what about LIQUID FUELS like Gasoline, Kerosene, Vegetable Oils, Paraffin fuels etc?  Right now we are forced to buy PG&E at any price they choose.  There is a lower bulk rate the residential consumers do not get.  What if, on the Spare the Air days, with all the new smart meters that can track usage hourly, when a "Spare the Air" day is called, all natural gas and Electricity is charged at the lower bulk Rate?  The incentive for burning wood, which is economic, would make Natural Gas the most economical fuels to use.
   I went to Sears, at Southland in Hayward,California on Monday and people were lined up buying electric heaters hoping to stay warm at night.  Their furnaces use too much fuel to heat the whole house when they can not use their wood stoves and wanted to bundle up in one room until the cold weather was over.  We are becoming a "Third world" country because we limit what we can use because of economics.   Housing prices are going up because China is buying up homes here in the Bay Area, not because the economy is improving or people are making more.
  I support "Spare the Air" but there needs to be an affordable alternative to Renewable Firewood other than PG&E 100% mark up Natural Gas Purchases.  Utilities, before de-regulation, were only allowed to make 8% per year but now they can make billions and 30 to 40% profits, giving big bonuses to it's executives.  Even the PG&E Stockholders are suing the utility for not maintaining it's infrastructure and instead giving the big bonuses to the top 80 executives.  Corporate greed is fueled by "spare the air" eliminating any competition from solid fuels. Edward F. Dijeau