I keep thinking that most of any problem would be solved by sticking a truck type catalytic converter on the outgoing stovepipe. Now whether or not the EPA considers that acceptable is another matter, and how they police it is yet another. My dads old place is most likely getting torn down now that the foreclosure went through and that was part of our decision to just have him stay as long as he could when the real estate people said the wood stove would have to get removed before the next owners move in. It was grandfathered in, but only for those who owned it before the cutoff date, and it was in an area that gets really wet and soggy in the winter, so without actual fire heating the place, it will mildew and rot. October to March, you had to have a fire going constantly just to stay ahead of the mold and mildew.

If you are going sovereign off grid, then it means no fancy real estate financing, no residential rentals, no home equity loan swaps or any of that stuff, so if your stuff is non-compliant, then it is not eligible for that.

You can own and live in non-compliant places in a lot of parts of the country, other parts of the country, it is gunpoint condemnation and eviction time.

That mass condemnation and eviction thing works with disarmed homeless camps and a few individuals here and there, it gets to be an entirely different story when it is an armed community. Even if only 20% are really "fighters", and then they have family and business ties outside, those vowing retaliation if the community is hit. They may have to give up wood burning stoves, maybe, but then demand some sort of give-back. That's how it has worked with Dignity Village here in Portland. 15 years ago established as a homeless camp, now a community of micro-homes, built up from improvised homeless shacks. A lot are still pretty shitty, but they constantly do improvements.

Such a place with a simple checkpoint, maybe a gate, but the symbolism of that gate getting crashed by municipal authorities with SWAT and bulldozers, then someone promising a fight or retaliation, that's part of what will build and assert sovereignty.

We have to recognize that much of the "system" wants dependent people being as financially successful as possible and then not really accumulating wealth, but handing it over. That's why the "system" loves high end apartment complexes so much.