Why does firewood cost so much? Fracking's part of it [View all]

[Omaha Steve]

FILE - In this Friday Nov. 15, 2013, file photo, Eric Clark keeps an eye on fresh split cord wood at Treehugger Farms in Westmoreland, N.H. Prices in parts of New England are averaging $325 a cord and can even push past $400 for a seasoned, delivered load. That’s anywhere from $50 to $75 more a cord than last year or an increase of 18 to 23 percent.(AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)


http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d87a68e928f844f4a894938a70c6409b/why-does-firewood-cost-so-much-frackings-part-it

By RIK STEVENS

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Northeasterners who are digging deeper into their pockets to pay for firewood this season can add a new scapegoat to the roster of usual market forces: fracking.

Yep, a timber industry representative in New Hampshire said those hydraulic fracturing well sites in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale formation to suck natural gas out of the ground are using construction "mats" made of hardwood logs — think of the corduroy roads seen in sepia-toned photographs from the 1800s — to get heavy equipment over mucky ground, wetlands or soft soils.

That increased demand has crept down the chimney into fireplaces. Prices in parts of New England are averaging $325 a cord and can even push past $400 for a seasoned, delivered load. That's anywhere from $50 to $75 more a cord than last year — or an increase of 18 to 23 percent.

Jasen Stock, executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, said it's not just fracking sites that are hogging the logs. Pipelines and transmission wires — really any large-scale construction project — have in the past three years ramped up the appetite for the perfect mat log: a hardwood trunk, 16 to 20 feet long and 8 to 10 inches in diameter.

FULL story at link.


Clever stacking of firewood on the front porch of Terri and Bob Tomchak's cozy home in Bridgton, Maine, allows them to enjoy the view from their living room window, Friday, Oct. 23, 2015. The couple burns about four cords of firewood each winter. Some consumers who may have switched over to wood over the past several years as heating oil prices ratcheted up are feeling a little buyer's remorse but continue to keep the woodpiles stocked even as prices push over $400 a cord. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)