OAN’s Roy Francis
10:23 AM – Wednesday, June 14, 2023
The Republican-controlled House is introducing legislation that would protect gas stoves from government regulators.
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The House approved a bill on Tuesday that would protect gas stoves from being regulated by the use of federal funds. The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act passed the House with a vote of 248-180, with more than 25 Democrats voting in favor of the bill.
Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said that the “war on stoves” will be stopped with the new legislation.
“This is a war on stoves,” Massie said. “And the war will be undone or stopped, halted, by the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom and the Save Our Gas Stoves Act.”
“We know the motivation of the CPSC and throughout this entire administration is a green climate push,” Representative Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), the sponsor of the legislation, said. “The goal is to dictate how you live every aspect of your life — how you save and invest for the future by pushing ESG, how you drive by banning gas-powered cars, and now the goal is to control how you cook.”
The bill was set to be voted on last week, however Conservatives had staged a weeklong revolt in retaliation for Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) concessions on the measure to raise the debt ceiling.
11 Republicans had broken with the party on the vote in protest of McCarthy’s actions and had delayed events on the House schedule. The Speaker resovled the dispute on Monday after agreeing to meeting with the Republicans and promising further federal spending reduction.
A second bill is also being introduced by the House, scheduled for a vote on Wednesday, which will block the Energy Department rule that had set strict energy efficiency standards for stovetops and ovens.
The rule could ban about half of gas stove models in the United States by the year 2027 according to Energy Department analysis. However, the rule would only apply to new sales of appliances and not to stoves or appliances already in homes.
Concerns were raised when the rule, which has not yet been finalized, was first introduced. The House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) said that the rule is “just the latest in a long line of power grabs” by the current administration.
She stated that the rule is “not about public safety,” instead she said the rule is about telling Americans that “the federal government knows best” and that it has the right to make those decisions.
Democrats said the concerns that were raised are “conspiracy theories,” and “misinformation.”
“This is nothing more than a conspiracy theory cooked up to emboil Congress in culture wars that shed more heat than light on the issues facing our nations,” Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.) said. “Contrary to the heated rhetoric from our colleagues across the aisle, the federal government has not proposed to remove appliances from Americans’ homes.”
New York was recently the first state to ban gas stoves in most of the new buildings through legislative actions, with other states following suit through building codes.
On Monday, the Biden administration also urged a federal court to reverse its decision from April which had struck down a ban on gas hookups in Berkeley, California.
The White House had stated that it “does not support any attempt to ban the use of gas stoves” however it also “strongly opposed” the newly passed bill.
President Joe Biden has not yet confirmed whether or not he will veto the bill when it reaches his desk.
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