OPINION:
Biden busybodies don’t like what’s doing the cooking in America’s kitchens. New stoves that broil, brown and bake with natural gas could be banned based on research suggesting that gas-related pollutants can cause respiratory problems. After spending the past two years caught in the middle of Washington’s war on fossil fuels, Americans aren’t fooled: A potential gas-range ban is clearly a new front in President Biden’s foolish bid for a “zero-carbon” future.
The proposed ban is the handiwork of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the agency tasked with protecting the public from risky products and developing product safety standards. Zeroing in on the ranges that are found in about 35% of American kitchens, the commission has taken credit for sniffing out a potential health harm that has somehow been overlooked for more than a century. “This is a hidden hazard,” Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg News, which first reported the proposal. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”
Concern over the health effects of indoor combustion of natural gas arises from a meta-analysis of studies published in the Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It compares the prevalence of gas stove used to the presence of childhood asthma and summarizes its findings: “We found that 12.7% … of current childhood asthma in the U.S. is attributed to gas stove use.”
Americans should question the researchers’ stated assumption that “exposure to gas cooking among children is orthogonal to other risk factors such as exposure to tobacco smoke.” Simply put, they argue that the health effects of gas cooking are statistically distinguishable from other sources of childhood asthma. The study’s objectivity is also suspect when one of the researchers is employed by RMI, an organization whose stated mission is “transforming the global energy system to secure a clean, prosperous, zero-carbon future for all.”
A ”zero-carbon future for all” is another way of saying “fossil fuels for none,” and that is the goal of environmental extremists at various levels of government. San Francisco and neighboring Berkeley kicked off the fad several years ago by prohibiting natural gas hookups in new construction. New York City joined them in 2021, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is proposing that the state become the first to ban gas in new buildings.
It’s all to save the climate, and the Environmental Protection Agency says that more than 10% of U.S. greenhouse gases are emitted by residential and commercial properties. Like its consumer-oriented counterpart, the agency supports pollution-reduction measures such as the switch to electric stoves and other “sustainable” gizmos like electric heat pumps.
Inconveniently, 80% of the nation’s electricity is generated from natural gas, coal and nuclear power plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Banning gas stoves would simply transfer carbon combustion from the kitchen to the power plant. That stubborn fact isn’t going away anytime soon.
Forcing them to swap the quick-cooking, blue-flamed range for the sluggish, red coils of the electric stove would only convince Americans that the kitchen is no place for Biden busybodies to stoke their foolish war on fossil fuels.
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