Issues & Insights
Twitter screenshot

Biden Is Still After Your Gas Stoves

Shortly after a Biden administration official boasted about how the federal government might ban gas stoves for being “unsafe,” the White House reassured the public that no such ban was in the works.

We warned readers at the time not to believe such reassurances because “once this sort of train starts moving there is often no stopping it.”

That was in early January. It took less than a month for the Biden administration to prove us right.

Earlier this month, the Department of Energy released a proposed rule that, if implemented, would essentially regulate gas stoves out of existence.

The new proposed rule comes despite the fact that the same federal department had decided in the past that – aside from an existing ban on always-lit pilot lights – efficiency mandates on gas stoves didn’t make much sense, since all they do is burn natural gas.

But Biden’s regulators decided to ditch common sense, insisting that appliance makers could squeeze out more heat through new designs.

The industry, which knows a thing or two about building appliances that customers want and can afford, recognizes BS when it sees it.

“This approach by DOE could effectively ban gas appliances,” Jill Notini, a vice president of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told Bloomberg. “We are concerned this approach could eliminate fully featured gas products.”

She says that 95% of the market would not meet the proposed levels.

Why the attack on gas stoves? Because they burn gas. And no matter how efficient they are, climate change fanatics will push to get rid of them because and only because of that.

But rather than admit this upfront, Biden officials keep trying to sneak their radical agenda through by claiming it’s all about “safety” or “efficiency.”

As Karen Harbert, president of the American Gas Association, put it, “We are concerned that this is another attempt by the federal government to use regulations to remove viable and efficient natural gas products from the market.”

The Biden administration says not to worry because even though the gas stove rule would impose huge costs, consumers will all save money in the long run.

This is, if you will excuse the pun, textbook gaslighting. One of the “benefits” the Department of Energy includes in its calculation is the “social cost” of carbon dioxide, a fiction that the left wants to use to justify a virtually unlimited number of cumbersome, intrusive new rules.

So, is this attack on gas stoves just a case of regulators running amok? Don’t believe that for a minute.

As David Blackmon rightly observes in Forbes, “regulatory actions such as this one … seldom germinate up organically among the career bureaucracy; most often, they are the result of lobbying efforts from outside interest groups. This is no secret.”

It might not be a secret to those who know how Washington works these days. But it is a secret to the vast majority of Americans who could one day wake up and be told that they can no longer purchase gas stoves, or gas-powered cars, or any other product the left deems impermissible.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board

We Could Use Your Help

Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day -- without fear or favor.

We’re doing this on a voluntary basis because we believe in a free press, and because we aren't afraid to tell the truth, even if it means being targeted by the left. Revenue from ads on the site help, but your support will truly make a difference in keeping our mission going. If you like what you see, feel free to visit our Donations Page by clicking here. And be sure to tell your friends!

You can also subscribe to I&I: It's free!

Just enter your email address below to get started.

Share

I & I Editorial Board

The Issues and Insights Editorial Board has decades of experience in journalism, commentary and public policy.

10 comments

  • Has anyone told Jill (pseudo-doc) Biden that cooking at a gas stove with such giant, flouncy cuffs is stupidly dangerous? One misplaced sweep of the wooden spoon and her polyester blouse goes up in flames. Stupidly obviously rules in the Biden household.

  • “But Biden’s regulators decided to ditch common sense”

    not possible, never had any to ditch

  • Biden’s handlers don’t care about what their fallacy does to you. Shut up and buy an EV and no you can’t cook or keep warm.

    • Leftism/Liberalism is based entirely on emotions and how one “feels” about a problem. Facts and logic don’t even come into play in creating leftist policies.

  • And if you don’t think that there is a broad organized effort to steer your thinking on these matters there is this:
    Saturday last, 2/18/23, an episode of Ask This Old House was on TV as I walked through the living room. The topic was — wait for it — gas cooktops! Specifically a comparison with an electrically powered induction cooktop. To no one’s surprise induction was presented as faster, safer, even more efficient! Sure it cost a lot more, and sure maybe you would have to upgrade electrical service in your house and maybe replace a lot of your cookware, and maybe the efficiency claim didn’t take into account the amount of coal or gas that would be needed to boil water to make steam to drive turbines to make and deliver the electricity it was “more efficiently” using, and yeah, if the power goes out it could be a problem, but hey, can’t induction cook an omelet without breaking some eggs, knowhatimean.

  • they won’t say you can’t have them, the regulations just make the price so high you can’t afford one…check out the price of a gas water heater to see where your prices will be going. twice if not three times the price of an electric one!

  • Aside from the higher cost of induction stoves and the utterly stupid idea – from a thermodynamic point of view – of using the tidiest form of energy, i.e. electricity, to generate heath, the very opposite of efficiency, nobody seems to consider that an induction stove needs special pans, pots and saucepans, so you’ll have to ditch all of your kitchen rigs and buy it anew.

  • Take away Airforce One make him use Greta,s little Sailboat is one of the first things we do make him cook food with sunbeams

About Issues & Insights

Issues & Insights is run by seasoned journalists who were behind the Pulitzer Prize-winning IBD Editorials page (before it was summarily shut down). Our goal then and now is to bring our decades of combined journalism experience to help readers understand the top issues of the day. I&I is a completely independent operation, beholden to none, but committed to providing cogent, rational, data-driven, fact-based commentary that the nation so desperately needs. 

We Could Use Your Help

Help us fight for honesty in journalism and against the tyranny of the left. If you like what you see, leave a donation by clicking on donate button above. You can also set up regular donations if you like. Ad revenue helps, but your support will truly make a difference. (Please note that we are not set up as a charitable organization, so donations aren't tax deductible.) Thank you!
Share

Discover more from Issues & Insights

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading