Jim Hartman
Richard Trumka Jr., a U.S. Consumer Product Safety commissioner, set off a firestorm Jan. 9 when he said in an interview that the agency was weighing a ban on natural gas stoves due to health hazards.
Trumka, a Democrat, was appointed by President Biden in July 2021 to the five-member CPSC.
He told Bloomberg News the popular gas stove appliance was a “hidden hazard” and suggested the agency could ban them.
Trumka confirmed to CNN on Jan 11: “Any option is on the table to regulate them. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”
In fact, Trumka tried and failed to do just that during a commission meeting last October. He proposed the CPSC should begin rulemaking to regulate gas stoves but was forced to withdraw his amendment after failing to earn support from a single commissioner.
But Trumka’s most recent comments were not the first time he had gone rogue since the October vote. He told reporters last month a ban on natural gas stoves was a “real possibility.”
The purported concern is that gas stoves cause indoor air pollution and asthma, though there is little evidence to support such claims.
Even the Environmental Protection Agency says “gas stoves (and gas fireplace inserts) do not require EPA certification. Whether designed to burn natural gas or propane, they burn very cleanly, emitting very little pollution.”
As the California Air Resources Board explains, “heating oil, fat and other food ingredients, especially at high temperatures” can generate pollutants, and “studies show that air can be unhealthy to breathe when people cook in kitchens with poor ventilation. The best way to ventilate your kitchen is to use a properly-installed, high efficiency range hood over your stove.”
The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood, the most comprehensive global study to date, found “no evidence of an association between the use of gas as a cooking fuel and either asthma symptoms or asthma diagnosis.”
A ban on gas cooking appliances would remove an affordable and preferred technology used in more than 40 million homes and 76 percent of restaurants.
Forty percent of households in the United States use a gas stove, and the number approaches 70 percent in California and New Jersey. Sixty percent of Nevada households use gas stoves.
The idea of banning gas stoves led to furious blowback from both congressional Republicans and Democrats.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) blasted any potential ban on gas stoves.
“The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner. I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on,” Manchin said.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and 43 House Republicans on Jan. 13 introduced the GAS Act. It would block Biden’s administration from outlawing gas stoves.
The White House insists Biden doesn’t want to ban gas stoves. However, his actions are to the contrary.
Climate zealots do want to ban them and “progressive”-dominated cities and states are doing it.
Far-left city governments in Berkeley, Calif. (2019), San Francisco (2020) and New York City (2021) have banned gas stoves and other appliances in new buildings. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced a ban on gas equipment including stoves in new small buildings in 2025 and larger ones in 2028.
And, the Biden administration is aiding and abetting the anti-gas stove cause. Last year it filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Berkeley’s gas ban.
Green New Deal warriors are engaged in a crusade to outlaw fossil fuels by imposing their values on the lifestyle of everyone else, including in the kitchen.
It’s not enough to force Americans to buy electric cars. We must all cook on electric stoves too.
They really are coming for your stove.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.