What’s The Deal With Biden And Gas Stoves?

You may have seen conservative leaders tweeting about keeping their gas stove (like this iconic and meme worthy tweet from Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas). Like me you may have been wondering: what on earth is everyone talking about? 

So here’s the deal: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced in December they would be considering regulating indoor air pollution from gas stoves. On January 9, commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. a democrat, said that the Commission would be considering a wholesale ban on gas stoves. Following public outcry led by Republican champions like Rep. Jackson, Trumka backpedaled and said a ban was no longer being considered.

The CPSC is an unconstitutional independent regulatory body which is charged with – as the name implies – product safety. The CPSC has a long record of operating well outside their charter by intimidating retailers into removing products from the shelves when the agency didn’t have the authority to ban the products themselves. The agency is supposed to regulate immediate safety issues such as ensuring helmets actually work on impact. But because that is a stupid and mostly needless job considering the market mostly regulates itself, it likes to make up other things it thinks it has the authority to do. Obviously, the theoretical risk of pollutants from gas stoves possibly maybe hypothetically inflaming someone’s asthma or contributing to long term climate change is WELL outside the bounds of the agency’s mission and authority. But this doesn’t stop them from intimidation tactics like the one employed this week on gas stoves. Ultimately the CPSC should not exist and Congress should move to totally defund their operation or at least move them under the authority of the Department of Commerce. 

But the CPSC was not the first or last to suggest banning or limiting the use of gas stoves and user safety was never the focus but rather the liberal pet issue of Climate Change. In fact, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has this week proposed banning the sale of gas stoves and water heaters. For two seemingly unrelated initiatives (Hochul’s is related ostensibly to the fuel shortage), it seems odd that there was a big movement on the two separate proposals at the same time. Almost as if it was coordinated by a singular campaign and not at all being proposed for the stated reasons.

But these two suspiciously correlated proposals aren’t the first. California banned the sale of natural gas appliances earlier in 2022 and is moving to rid the entire state of all gas appliances (new or old) by 2030. All in the name of the big bad Climate Change wolf. 

So despite the leftist media trying to save face for Biden like the New York Times with their unethically misleading headline and willfully false reporting or the Atlantic calling the concern “silly” (above) – while the CPSC has backed down from their position, it isn’t unreasonable for conservatives to be shouting down the ridiculous and fairly random banning de jour from the left which is gas powered appliances including stoves.