The Biden administration may ban the use of gas stoves and furnaces in American homes and businesses.
Gas ranges are found in 40 percent of all homes and most commercial restaurant settings but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) now alleges they pose a health risk. The federal agency will allow public comment on the controversial move in the next two months, CPSC head Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg News.
“This is a hidden hazard,” Trumka speculated, speaking to the news service in an interview published on Jan. 9. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”
Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
The effort is being pushed by Democrats Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and others who penned a letter urging the commission to “take action to address these risks” of gas stoves.
Some, however, say it is another backdoor way to enforce the administration’s “green” energy push, costing homeowners tens of billions to replace their appliances.
The CPSC already issued a request for information seeking data on the alleged hazards associated with gas stoves and input for solutions, but the CPSC hasn’t proposed any regulatory actions yet, a spokesperson told media outlets.
Such a request for data and input, Trumka told reporters last month, “is the first step in what could be a long journey toward regulating gas stoves.” Trumka, a Biden appointee, is a former congressional Democratic staffer and the son of Richard Trumka, the late former chief of one of the most powerful unions in the United States, the AFL-CIO.
A ban on the manufacture and import of new gas stoves is a “real possibility,” he noted at the time. If there’s enough public pressure, the CPSC “could get a regulation on the books before this time next year,” he said. But, that goes both ways with many calling on homeowners and restaurants to push back against any ban.
Industry groups say that natural gas stoves don’t necessarily emit more harmful emissions than other types of stoves. the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers and the American Gas Association both argued against a ban.
“Ventilation is really where this discussion should be, rather than banning one particular type of technology,” Jill Notini, a vice president at the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told Bloomberg. “Banning one type of a cooking appliance is not going to address the concerns about overall indoor air quality. We may need some behavior change, we may need [people] to turn on their hoods when cooking.”
While Karen Harbert, head of the American Gas Association, argued that neither the CPSC nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “present gas ranges as a significant contributor to adverse air quality or health hazard in their technical or public information literature, guidance, or requirements.”
“The most practical, realistic way to achieve a sustainable future where energy is clean, as well as safe, reliable and affordable, is to ensure it includes natural gas and the infrastructure that transports it,” Harbert said.
Conservative groups have criticized bans on natural gas-powered appliances and furnaces.
“Banning natural gas would restrict consumers’ ability to choose the energy source they might prefer. A big reason that families like natural gas is because it wins out on cost,” the Heritage Foundation stated in an article in 2020.
The American Gas Association also stated in 2020 that “households that use natural gas for heating, cooking, and clothes drying save an average of $879 per year compared to homes using electricity for those applications.”
–Wire services