Gas-stove culture war
Who could have predicted that kitchen stoves would become the latest tinderbox in the nation’s culture wars?
But that’s what happened in recent days as Republicans flew off the handle over comments by Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, who said the agency was looking at regulating gas stoves and could even ban them because they are a health hazard.
GOP politicians seized on the remarks, accusing President Biden and the Democrats of trying to take away people’s gas stoves. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz declared they’d have to “pry” his gas stove “from my COLD DEAD HANDS!” and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio debuted a new motto of sorts: “God. Guns. Gas stoves.”
They were joined by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a champion of the fossil fuel industry, who said “the federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner” and “the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”
Of course, no federal officials are going to barge into homes and confiscate stoves, and any regulations the Consumer Product Safety Commission might pursue would apply only to new products anyway.
So far, the commission has done little more than announce last fall that it would be seeking public input on the hazards associated with gas stoves. It garnered little attention until last week, when it exploded into a national news story and social media controversy. The uproar forced the commission chair to clarify Wednesday that the commission is exploring ways to reduce indoor air pollution from gas stoves but is not looking to ban them or in any proceedings to do so. The White House weighed in too, telling reporters Wednesday that President Biden “does not support banning gas stoves.”
But the commission is right to consider regulations. The fact is, there are real, longstanding health concerns about gas stoves. They are used in 35 percent of U.S. homes and can generate harmful levels of indoor air pollution, especially in homes that lack proper ventilation, such as range hoods that vent to the outside.
The recent eruption of faux outrage over a nonexistent gas stove ban should be understood as the latest outgrowth of a decades-long disinformation campaign by the fossil fuel industry whose business model is threatened by the transition to allelectric homes powered by renewable energy. Stoves account for only a small percentage of household gas use but have become cultural symbols that gas companies and their supporters have manufactured through greenwashing campaigns designed to prolong their use and slow action to protect public health and the climate.
There won’t be any federal agents pounding on your door to seize your gas stove. But there might be a generous government incentive to motivate you to switch it out for something cleaner, faster, less polluting and better for your family’s health.