EPA just launched a new woodstove and fireplace website. It is good source of reference information on the subject. Check it out at http://www.epa.gov/woodstoves/

Speaking of energy... Did you know that of the top oil producing countries in the world, only one is a democracy with a president who was elected on a platform of using his nation's oil revenue to benefit the poor. The country is Venezuela. The President is Hugo Chavez.

Are you one of the ever-mounting majority of American that think the war in Iraq over oil was a mistake? Well, I'm pleased to learn that Snopes says, "Complex problems rarely lend themselves to simple, painless answers. Simply shifting where we buy gasoline isn't nearly as good a solution as the much tougher choice of sharply curtailing the amount of gasoline we buy."

Before you decide to follow my previous advice and launch a Buy-cott, favoring one station over another check out Snopes.com's readout on the subject.

It's true that Citgo is a U.S. refining and marketing firm that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company. Much of the money you pay to Citgo goes primarily to Venezuela - but they too also import from Middle Eastern countries including Iraq and Kuwait.

Snopes says, "Moreover, the idea that oil companies sell gasoline only through their branded service stations, and therefore if you don't buy gasoline from Shell-branded gas stations you're not sending money to Shell (or, by extension, the Middle East), is wrong. Oil companies sell their output through a variety of outlets other than their branded stations; as well, by the time crude oil gets from the ground into our gasoline tanks, there's no telling exactly where it came from. A good deal of the crude oil purchased from Russia, for example, is oil from Iraqi fields sold through Russian middlemen."

Special thanks to Compass reader and local broomball activist Kevin Duffy for pointing out "...the rest of the story" on the subject of oil at Snopes.com which resulted in revisions and update to this posting.

Join us at the Compass Coffeehouse this coming Saturday, June 18 at 6:30 PM for a free movie on the subject: "Extreme Oil - The Journey." Follow four barrels of oil as they travel from the ground to the gas pump. Fifteen years after the end of the Cold War and in the wake of two wars in the Gulf and Iraq, all the world's easy oil has been found. Today, the oil industry has to go to extremes to find new sources of the asset that drives the world's economy and fuels so many aspects of modern life. EXTREME OIL crisscrosses the globe like the transcontinental pipelines themselves, exposing a wide range of issues -- and meeting people who wrestle with the dilemmas of how to ensure the supply we need, at a price we will tolerate.

Enjoy a free and informative film followed by lively discussion each week at the Compass Coffeehouse in our ongoing Saturday Cinema Series. Come on a bicycle this week and the coffee drink of your choice is free.