Well, that was fast. No sooner did the news break that a Biden administration agency was considering a ban on gas stoves to address indoor home air quality than the entire idea got shot down, burned, and then buried, never to be spoken of again.
The spin circulating around today is that there was never any real consideration of a ban by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), just some talk about indoor air quality. That is not the way the reporting made it sound nor is it the way the details from the CPSC were presented.
Just read the first sentence of the Bloomberg story we quoted yesterday:
A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances.
What else does “a ban on gas stoves is on the table” mean besides banning gas stoves might be or is being considered? In other words, the preposterous cat got out of the bag too soon and the idea was so roundly condemned that even the White House had to respond that President Biden does not support a ban on gas stoves:
“The president does not support banning gas stoves,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Wednesday’s briefing. “And the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is independent, is not banning gas stoves. I just want to be very clear on that.”
Jean-Pierre was responding to questions about a potential ban on new gas stoves, an idea floated this week by Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who called the appliances a “hidden hazard” in an interview with Bloomberg News.
It’s a fairytale to believe that amid states like New York proposing a ban on not only stoves but also gas appliances of any kind, environmental left-wing zealots within government federal agencies aren’t tickling themselves over the prospect of banning something in the name of climate. Furthermore, hurting the oil and gas industry is always a bonus for the anti-energy Democratic Party.
This is all good news since a lot of homes really enjoy their gas appliances:
As Biden’s reps plan to ban gas stoves and Ovens, his wife Jill cooks spinach on a gas stove! {Do as I say, not as I do} ‘Rules for thee but none for me” pic.twitter.com/XiscoErjtp
— Ali M (@Alisa_Murphy29) January 12, 2023
Yes, that’s the First Lady Dr. Jill Biden cooking recklessly on her gas stove back in 2020. What a monster.
Call it a trial balloon or simply an error of letting too much information out too quickly. It’s an example of boiling a frog. If you toss the frog in a pot of boiling water, he’ll jump out. If you toss him a pot of cold water and slowly turn up the heat, he won’t notice until it’s too late. Just don’t boil him on a gas stove, it causes indoor air pollution. In this case, the public was shocked by the idea of banning a common appliance that the backlash was immediate and decisive.
The stove ban by itself is a bridge too far in one step. It will take incremental changes over time to nudge people in that direction. Don’t be fooled into believing it’s something that would never happen. States are already doing it which is probably making the nanny-state bureaucrats at federal agencies jealous.
No federal stove ban this week but check back in a few years.
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