Republicans are warning that the Biden administration will come for your stove if it runs on gas.
Shortly after an article this week. quoted a member from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission saying the agency was considering banning gas stoves, Republican lawmakers seized on the comments by arguing that President Joe Biden and government bureaucrats were intruding on the kitchens of United States and trying to dictate the preparation of meals.
Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, called it a «power grab» by Biden.
“Gas stoves are the next thing the Biden Administration is looking for,” he said. tweeted. «Washington bureaucrats should have no say in how Americans cook their dinner.»
Rep. Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, told Biden to «take your hands off our gas stoves.»
Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, raised the temperature to suggestion a ban on gas stoves was evidence that Biden’s «weaponization of the federal bureaucracy and fake science» had reached «a fever pitch.»
In the Senate, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina tweeted: «Biden can always be counted on to GASLIGHT the American people.»
Senator tom cottonR-Ark., added: «Democrats are coming for your kitchen appliances. Their desire to control every aspect of your life knows no bounds, including how you cook breakfast. They just can’t help it.»
But it turns out that much of the rhetoric may have been overheated.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission said there was no official proposal on the matter and that any action to regulate gas stoves would be a «long process.»
Richard Trumka Jr., the commissioner who raised the idea of a ban in a interview with bloomberg newsalso tweeted that the commission «It ain’t coming for nobody’s gas stoves”, adding that any regulation would apply to new products, not existing stoves.
His initial comments, however, had already caught fire.
The American Gas Association issued a statement suggesting that concerns about the safety of natural gas are «unfounded» and «misguided.»
«Attempting to create consumer fears with unsubstantiated allegations to justify banning natural gas is a misguided agenda that will not improve the environment or the health of consumers and would burden vulnerable populations with significant costs,» the group said. commercial.
Back on Capitol Hill, Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia tried to set the record straight about his role in all of this.
Last month, Beyer joined Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J., in writing a letter urging safety committee chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric to act on concerns about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by gas stoves.
“Today there has been a lot of gaslight on the gas stoves”, Beyer he tweeted on tuesday. “To be clear, I did not call for a ban on gas stoves. @SenBooker and I write to @USCPSC asking them to consider ways to reduce potential health risks, including childhood asthma.»
