Unfortunately, isopropyl won't burn clean in a pressure burner type stove designed for ethanol, though many of them will work fine with straight methanol (sold as a solvent in the paint department). I've used it, many years ago, in small wick burners (like a fat wick oil candle); it does burn pretty cleanly that way, if the wick isn't so fat the flame starves for air in the core. It can be made to burn cleanly in a pressure type stove (like a gasoline pressure stove) by altering the air to fuel ratio, but most (if not all) alcohol stoves I've seen are designed for ethanol. This may backfire on California, however -- the primary source of air pollution in Mexico City has long been leaks in propane/butane tanks used for heating and cooking. California is effectively legislating a change-over from liquid alcohol as a fuel to butane or propane -- which are notoriously hard to seal and don't tend to get maintained. Further, I don't think I'd consider either methanol or isopropyl an improvement for the VOC issue.
Seems to me that ethanol sold in gasoline (E-10, E-15, and E-85) is a much larger contributor to the problem than chafing dish fuel or shellac thinner. And there's no replacement for ethanol in either shellac or wet plate photography (the latter such a tiny consumer that it ought to merit an exemption, at least to allow users to order in from out of state).
Otherwise, one might have to purchase the 150 proof version of Everclear, and use molecular sieves to sop up the last of the water. Expensive way to run a burner, but at least feasible for wet plate photographers.
