Damned red tape just never ends!

>some are in the north cascades already

Last one was seen in 1996. There's been a lot of monitoring since then in NCNP, with no confirmed sightings, hair, tracks, or scat, so I don't think so.

There are a number of places in the Olympics where pillow basalt is exposed. Pillow basalt forms when lava erupts under the sea. One place you can see it is along Hurricane Ridge Rd.

Whether the manufacturer is still in business or not, the fact is that the panels aren't going to be hazardous waste in 20 years. They're still going to be pumping out power. And I don't know what Bill Maher's problem was, but it only took me a couple of weeks to get the permit for our solar install. Nobody I know who's put up home solar in Washington has any delays from permitting. So you hate solar? Fine, don't buy it, and keep paying your big electric bills. But spare us this Newsmax bullshit.

We have no backup furnace for ours, but we do have a propane fireplace that we sometimes use to take the chill off quickly.

>Current solar panels have a useful lifespan of around 20 years, after which they're hazardous waste.

This is untrue. The SilFab panels (made in Bellingham, by the way) I just put on my roof are guaranteed to maintain 97% of their efficiency for 30 years. They don't become waste after that point, their efficiency just slowly drops off. They'll likely still be pumping out plenty of power for decades longer.

As for your claim that there's a shortage of raw materials, I bought mine 6 months ago, with no delay in promised delivery date. And I don't know what you mean by "look at how that's working out" in California. California's power costs are about triple those of Washington's, so the typical payback period of home solar is only about 6 or 7 years. You'd be stupid not to buy a house with solar in California.

Yeah, but with utility scale solar the consumer is still buying the power at market rates from the utility. If you own the panels on your roof your utility pays you for the power you feed into the grid. You can come close to zeroing out your electic bill.

Our PUD gave us an $800 credit for retrofitting with heat pumps.

What science are you talking about that's "been ignored"?

Yeah, but they're still more efficient than conventional forced air. The best low-temp heat pumps are 188% efficient at 0 F.

IT'S SOCIALISM! Any true American would rather see his granny die than accept a government check.

I emailed Smiley to ask one simple question: Who won the presidential election in 2020? No response, of course.

Try posting on NWHikers.net

It's always worth checking iNaturalist for stuff like this: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=62803

>Huge numbers of roads that don't exist.

But many of those are now public trails, so all those 19th Century dreams left a nice legacy.

It's actually called Ross Lake National Recreation Area.

>A cheaper option would be to check the insulation in your attic.

True. But what matters even more than insulation is air leaks around doors, window & foundations. Getting a whole-house pressure test done will identify those leaks.