WASHINGTON, D. C. – Claiming that President Joe Biden’s administration is at “war” with stoves fueled by natural gas, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation called the “Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act.”
The legislation to block the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating gas stoves as banned hazardous products passed in a 248 to 180 vote. The bill also would block the safety commission from imposing safety regulations on gas stoves if those regulations would ban their use or sale, or substantially increase their average price.
“Nearly 40% of all households rely on gas stoves to put food on the table,” said a statement that Rocky River Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller posted on Twitter. “But the Biden admin has released a rule that would eliminate more than 50% of gas stoves nationally. This week, @HouseGOP will take action to overturn this rule & preserve choice for consumers!”
In Ohio, about 34% of households used gas ranges, cooktops and ovens in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“Save gas stoves!” agreed a Twitter posting from U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Champaign County Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
Democrats denied the Biden administration plans to ban gas stoves, with Pennsylvania’s U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon calling it “a conspiracy theory cooked up to embroil Congress in culture wars that shed more heat than light on the issues facing our nation and are likely done so with a healthy helping of fossil fuel lobbying dollars.”
Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett said Congress should be more concerned about how “our planet is cooking,” than how we are cooking on our stoves.
“If my colleagues are interested in an appliance that is causing harm to children’s lives, perhaps they will get the courage to have a hearing about banning assault weapons, which are actually killing people every single day,” U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, a Warrensville Heights Democrat, said at a hearing on the bill. “This is dangerous and dumb. We have much better things to focus our time on.”
The bill was introduced after Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner Richard Trumpka Jr. told Bloomberg News a ban on gas stoves was “on the table” because of concerns about pollutants they emit, and research linking them to health problems, including asthma.
The organization’s chairman subsequently posted a statement on Twitter that said he’s “not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.” The chairman, Alex Hoehn-Saric, said it is researching potential ways to make the products safer and reduce indoor air quality hazards.
The Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate is unlikely to consider the bill, and the White House has released a statement that says it opposes any effort that would undermine the CPSC’ ability to make science-based decisions to protect the public, which is what the legislation would do.
The statement said the legislation, and a related bill that House Republicans intend to take up in the next few days, would also block “common sense efforts to help Americans cut their energy bills.”
Read More: Protecting stoves or gaslighting? Republicans pass ‘Gas Stove Protection and