Senators Launch Bipartisan Fight Against Fed’s Efforts to Limit Use of Gas Stoves

Now that it’s been revealed Biden administration officials weren’t just blowing smoke when they forwarded recent ideas of banning the installation of gas stoves in new buildings and slapping new regulations on existing gas ranges,   two United States senators have teamed up to deflate any attempts by the federal government to curtail the use of gas-powered cooking appliances.

Sen.Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, last week introduced the “Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act” after news was leaked about the Biden administration’s plans to place restrictions on gas stoves.

The proposed legislation would prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from pursuing regulations on existing or new gas stoves that would ban their use or “substantially increase the average price of gas stoves in the United States.”

Cruz and Manchin’s initiative follows comments made late last year by CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., who suggested the Biden administration could prohibit gas stoves based on claims that they emit pollutants that cause respiratory and health issues.

“Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” Trumka told Bloomberg. “Any option is on the table.”

Almost immediately after Trumpka’s comments hit the news wires, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asserted that President Joe Biden doesn’t support a ban on gas stoves.

Alexander Hoehn-Saric, CSPC chair, released a statement saying that there wasn’t an effort underway to ban gas stoves and Trumka tried to walk his comments back.
But, an internal memo obtained by Fox News Digital showed Trumka back in that in October 2022 encouraged the CPSC move ahead with a recommendation on gas stoves, writing, “The need for gas stove regulation has reached a boiling point…There is sufficient information available for CPSC to issue an NPR (notice of proposed rulemaking) in FY 2023 proposing to ban gas stoves in homes.”
Then, the Biden administration last week entertained a new proposed regulation that would implement new efficiency standards for gas and electric cooking tops and ovens through the Department of Energy. The rule would apply to appliances manufactured in the U.S. as well as imported from other countries and would take effect three years after being adopted.
The DOE explained the rationale for the new efficiency standards by saying is has “tentatively concluded…the proposed standards represent the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified, and would result in the significant conservation of energy…because consumer operating cost savings and health benefits alone greatly exceed costs under all such assumptions and scenarios, DOE noted that this conclusion does not depend on climate benefits (though DOE’s estimates of climate benefits remain important and robust).”
According to a DOE spokesperson who spoke to FOX Business, about half of all models currently on the market would fail to meet the proposed standards without modifications. Regulators estimate the proposed standards would raise the overall purchasing costs of oven and stove appliances by $32.5 million per year — but would save $100.8 million in annual operating costs, while generating $67 million in climate benefits and $64.9 million in health benefits.
Said Cruz in a written statement, “Make no mistake, radical environmentalists want to stop Americans from using natural gas. The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s proposed ban on gas stoves is the latest egregious scaremongering by the Far Left and their Biden administration allies…I am pleased to partner with Sen. Manchin in this bipartisan effort to stop the federal government from issuing regulations that put the interests of the Green New Deal before the well-being of American families.”
Manchin added that the federal government “has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner, which is why Sen. Cruz and I introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure Americans decide how to cook in their own homes…I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave our house is the gas stove we cook on, and I will continue to fight any overreach by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”