Yes, the Biden administration really is coming for your gas stove. And the entire Delaware Valley Democratic delegation voted on Tuesday to help it do so.
U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, Chrissy Houlahan, and Mary Gay Scanlon voted against the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, a bill to protect Americans’ ability to choose the type of stove they want in their kitchen. Despite their opposition, it passed the House with a bipartisan 248-180 majority.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks) voted for the measure.
“The Biden administration is intent on weaponizing every aspect of the federal government to achieve its ideological goals,” said Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), the bill’s author. “Consumer protection should be about safety, not used as a veiled push to eliminate fossil fuels and the millions of jobs they support. Americans should decide if gas stoves are right for their families, not the federal government. I’m glad to see this commonsense bill to rein in the administration pass the House.”
The Biden White House issued a statement claiming that while “it does not support any attempt to ban the use of gas stoves,” Biden will veto legislation stripping the administration of the power to ban them.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 47 percent of Pennsylvania households rely on natural gas or propane for heat, far more than electricity (29 percent) or heating oil (20 percent). Across the nation, there are some 45 million gas stoves and ovens, and 187 million households use natural gas, according to the American Gas Association.
And they like it, too. A 2021 national Morning Consult poll found, “When it comes to the choice between natural gas and electricity for cooking, natural gas is still the favored choice: 73 percent of respondents who prefer to keep their gas stoves said they’ve used both and electric ‘did not work as well as gas alternatives.’”
But climate change activists have targeted natural gas in general and gas stoves in particular.
In January, the Biden administration’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) chair Richard Trumka said a ban on gas stoves and ranges is “on the table,” a statement that sparked immediate backlash. Even President Joe Biden felt the need to disavow his appointee’s statement. But newly-uncovered emails show the White House had been discussing restrictions on gas appliances with the CPSC months before the announcement.
And the Biden Department of Energy (DOE) is proposing new regulations on gas stoves that, according to a nonpartisan Congressional Research Service report, would keep about half of the current gas stove models off the market.
“In assessing the conversion itself, DOE conducted a market survey and sampled 21 units currently on the market, finding 20 would not comply with the proposed standard without conversion of the equipment,” the Service reported.
“It’s interesting how some Democratic lawmakers are so fervently ‘pro-choice’ on some issues, but then they turn around and vote to deny personal choice on other issues, as is the case here,” said Kurt Knaus with the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance. “Opponents of clean-burning natural gas are moving their campaigns from the fields where wells are drilled and pipelines are built, and they now have their sights set on our kitchen stoves. It’s unbelievable.
“Fortunately, common sense won the day here,” Knaus added.
The effort to ban gas stoves has also increased at the state and local levels.
The state of New York has banned new natural gas hookups beginning in most buildings by 2026.
In Massachusetts, “a group of progressive Democratic lawmakers has filed proposals requiring the state to draft regulations restricting gas ranges and other appliances in new construction.”
The attorneys general of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York have signed a letter demanding that the federal government crackdown on gas stoves.
And the Biden administration filed a joint brief in federal court on Monday supporting Berkeley, Calif.’s ban on natural gas in new buildings that was struck down in federal court.
“This measure isn’t just about protecting consumer choice,” said Knaus. “It’s also about defending against onerous restrictions that serve no other real purpose than trying to disrupt markets for natural gas, something that would damper our state and regional economies and threaten the job creation we have seen over the decade-plus in Pennsylvania.”
Chris Gustafson with the National Republican Congressional Committee called out Pennsylvania Democrats, all of whom voted against the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, for what he called their “extreme” position.
“It’s no secret that extreme Democrats like Matt Cartwright and Susan Wild want to control every facet of American life: from what we drive, to what we learn, and now we cook. These extreme control freaks have no concept of the real problems facing everyday Americans, so they’re inventing new ones instead.”
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