They really are coming for your gas stove. We first talked about this in February, when it was only a rumor. In an earlier post, Are Gas Stoves Dangerous to Your Health?, I said there were climate activists who were pressuring the White House to ban all gas stoves. Among those groups was Climate Imperative Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Institute, and Rewiring America.
At the time, Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal said, ““The reason gas stoves are in the news is simple: There is a coordinated, calculated – and well-funded – strategy to kill them off. It’s the joint enterprise of extremely powerful climate groups, working with Biden administration officials who have publicly stated their aim to eliminate all “combustion appliances” in homes. Only after the GOP called them out did anyone pretend otherwise.”
Fast forward four months and now it is clear it was not a rumor. The Biden Energy Department issued an attack on gas stoves which was disguised as an “efficiency” regulation. The proposed rule would ban most current gas models and make replacements far less functional. The Energy Information Administration says that in 2020 nearly 40% of Americans used gas to cook in their homes. But since this is an offense against the climate activists, the rule is designed to make gas products too hard to make or use.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “The rule would cap a stove’s annual energy use- at no more than 1,204 thousand British thermal units a year. This would limit or eliminate features that are a reason people buy them. The rule would make it all but impossible to sell stoves that have more than one high-input(large) burner, which cooks use for searing, stir-frying or quickly heating water. Technical aspects of the rule could also limit the availability of smaller, low-heat burners – which are used to melt, simmer and keep food warm without burning. The rule also targets cast-iron grates, which let users safely handle pots or move them more easily around burners.”
How will this impact those who use gas stoves?
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers notes that more than two-thirds of gas cook tops feature more than one large burner, a priority for most buyers. Even the Energy Department admits that half of today’s stove models won’t comply with its rule. Critics say the share is actually much higher, pointing to a table buried in a supporting DOE document that shows that, when DOE tested models, 20 of 21 failed to comply with its new threshold. Outlawing 96% of stove models is effectively a ban.
The Biden Administration is trying to promote the fiction that they are targeting appliance efficiency to save consumers money. But the stove rule makes it clear this is a de facto ban on gas stoves. The House Republicans are responding with a bill called Save Our Gas Stoves Act, which bars the DOE from finalizing the proposed rule or any that is substantially similar. A second bill, The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, would bar the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating or banning stoves based on the false claim that they are health hazards. It has already passed in the House, 248 – 180, with 29 Democrats joining the GOP majority.
You have to wonder why Democrats would push such an unpopular idea as banning gas stoves. WJS says it is a political loser for Democrats, which is why they want to disguise the scheme as a regulation that the media will ignore. Overriding the rule in the House would put Democrats on the record and put pressure on Senate Democrats to allow a vote too.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, since we have electric stoves in our home. But this is another example of climate activism that is out of hand. If the science truly supports their position, they should be confident to present the scientific facts to make their case for an outright ban. If not, they shouldn’t resort to false claims about “improving efficiency” to pass a de facto ban.
