Overturning Biden’s Gas Stove Ban

In February the Energy Department issued an attack on gas stoves disguised as an “efficiency” regulation. The proposed rule would ban most current gas models and make replacements far less functional. The Energy Information Administration says that in 2020 nearly 40% of Americans used gas to cook in their homes. But this is an offense against climate dogma, so the rule is designed to make gas products too hard to make or use.

The rule would cap a stove’s annual energy use—at no more than 1,204 thousand British thermal units a year. This would limit or eliminate features that are a reason people buy them. The rule would make it all but impossible to sell stoves that have more than one high-input (large) burner, which cooks use for searing, stir-frying or quickly heating water.

Technical aspects of the rule could also limit the availability of smaller, low-heat burners—which are used to melt, simmer and keep food warm without burning. The rule also targets cast-iron grates, which let users safely handle pots or move them more easily around burners.

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers notes that more than two-thirds of gas cook tops feature more than one large burner, a priority for most buyers. Even the Energy Department admits that half of today’s stove models won’t comply with its rule. Critics say the share is much higher, pointing to a table buried in a supporting DOE document that shows that, when DOE tested models, 20 of 21 failed to comply with its new threshold. Outlawing 96% of stove models is a ban.

The stove rule blows up the fiction that the Administration is targeting appliance efficiency to save consumers money. Energy cooking costs are relatively low—less than $35 a year for either gas or electric—and DOE admits its new rule would save gas users a mere $1.50 a year. The rule stresses its real purpose, which is “cumulative [carbon] emissions reductions.”

The GOP’s Save Our Gas Stoves Act bars Energy from finalizing the proposed rule or any that is substantially similar. It is expected to get a House vote on Wednesday. The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act would bar the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating or banning stoves based on the false claim that they are health hazards. It passed Tuesday, 248-180, with 29 Democrats joining the GOP majority.

Banning gas stoves is a political loser for Democrats, which is why they want to disguise the scheme as a regulation that the media will ignore. Overriding the rule in the House would put Democrats on the record and put pressure on Senate Democrats to allow a vote too. This is the way to make political progress, not to blow up a majority in acts of futile frustration.