{"id":786,"date":"2025-08-26T11:07:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T11:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/?p=786"},"modified":"2025-08-26T11:07:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T11:07:46","slug":"democrats-again-want-to-ban-your-gas-appliances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/democrats-again-want-to-ban-your-gas-appliances\/","title":{"rendered":"DEMOCRATS AGAIN WANT TO BAN YOUR GAS APPLIANCES!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bans on gas stoves come back as Democratic cities and states continue war on gas appliances<\/h1>\n

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The Biden administration tried and failed to enact a federal ban on gas stoves, and then denied the plans, convincing media “fact-checkers” to call it a “right-wing conspiracy.” A federal court shot down Berkeley’s ban on natural gas hookups, but undaunted, the movement to ban gas stoves lives on with “creative” laws that may avoid the legal pitfalls that killed Berkeley’s law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A new law went into effect in Colorado<\/a> earlier this month requiring health warning labels on gas stoves, similar to those placed on cigarette packages. It\u2019s one example of multiple efforts,\u00a0primarily in blue states<\/a>, to stop consumers from using gas-powered appliances in their homes.<\/p>\n

After a Biden administration official in 2023 alluded to the possibility of a\u00a0ban on gas stoves<\/a> in the name of public health, legacy media outlets produced a number of \u201cfact checks<\/a>\u201d insisting the Biden administration wasn\u2019t going to ban gas stoves. They claimed the whole idea was just a “right-wing conspiracy.”<\/p>\n

Conveniently, most of the “fact checks” ignored the many local and state efforts in Democratic strongholds to accomplish the same goal. Time <\/em>Magazine published a January 2023<\/a> “fact check” calling Republican opposition to such bans on a state-level a “right-wing culture war,” comparable to “family values and religion.”<\/p>\n

According to Time<\/em>, “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed back against the notion that Republicans are the ones engaging in culture war over gas stoves.” During a speech, the Republican told supporters that Democrats and the media are trying to stoke the issue. \u201cThey want to do it, I mean, let\u2019s be honest,\u201d DeSantis said of the calls to ban gas-fueled stoves. \u201cYou start to see the narrative kick into gear, CNN segments saying how it\u2019s causing asthma in kids. They start propagating the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole campaign is just an attempt to ban fossil fuels at the end of the day. So it’s just kind of one plank in a larger strategy,\u201d Energy analyst David Blackmon, author of the \u201cEnergy Transition Absuridities<\/a>\u201d Substack, told\u00a0Just the News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

State senator: “Only fair to warn people”<\/h5>\n

Colorado State Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation<\/a>, told\u00a0Canary Media<\/em> \u2014 an activist publication that\u00a0receives funding from anti-fossil fuel groups<\/a> \u2014 that \u201cit\u2019s only fair to warn people\u201d that gas stoves might have health impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike other gas-burning appliances and gasoline-burning cars, gas ranges spew noxious compounds such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides,\u201d\u00a0Canary Media<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the law, a warning label must be affixed to gas stoves, warning consumers that they need to \u201cunderstand the air-quality implications of having an indoor gas stove.\u201d Using a link or QR code, the labels direct consumers to a state website that tries to convince buyers the appliance will\u00a0possibly kill them or cause illnesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The information on the website relies primarily on federal government websites, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concerning potential health impacts from poor indoor air quality. However, there is no scientific consensus supporting such claims.<\/p>\n

Anti-gas activists have regularly touted studies that found potential health risks from using stoves powered by fossil fuels, only to ignore flaws in those studies or the other studies that found no such link. In 2020,\u00a0UCLA researchers produced a report<\/a> claiming that gas stoves pose risks of respiratory illness, cardiovascular diseases, and premature death, especially among children, the elderly and low-income renters.<\/p>\n

However, a\u00a0study in 2023 by the California Restaurant Association<\/a>, which lobbied against bans on natural gas hookups, found several issues with the UCLA report that led to flawed comparisons. \u201cHad the UCLA Report made the correct comparisons, it would have concluded that there are no adverse health impacts from indoor use of natural gas appliances,\u201d the study stated.<\/p>\n

The UCLA study was funded by the Sierra Club, which has received $1 billion through Bloomberg Philanthropies. That money came from billionaire Bloomberg as part of a campaign called \u201cBeyond Carbon<\/a>,\u201d which seeks to stop consumers from accessing energy from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

No significant association with asthma, but plenty of political ties<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The controversy over a federal ban on gas stoves by the Biden administration followed the publication of a\u00a0study by the Rocky Mountain Institute<\/a> (RMI), which found that 12% of current childhood asthma cases in the US can be attributed to gas stove use.<\/p>\n

Less than a month after the RMI study was published,\u00a0Bloomberg<\/em> News<\/em> interviewed<\/a> Consumer Public Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. about the alleged health impacts from gas stoves, asking if the commission would take action. Trumka told\u00a0Bloomberg<\/em> that \u201cproducts that can\u2019t be made safe can be banned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics of RMI\u2019s gas stove study argue that the quality of the data it used was poor because it didn\u2019t factor in the findings of a 2013 study by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies,<\/a> which is considered the most comprehensive global study<\/a> on the topic to date.<\/p>\n

Last year, a\u00a0major study<\/a> published in the renowned medical journal\u00a0The Lancet<\/em> conducted an extensive meta-analysis of the health risks \u2014 meaning an examination of scientific literature to determine overall trends in the findings of multiple studies on the topic \u2014 from using gas stoves compared to electricity and other fuels. The\u00a0Lancet<\/em> study found no significant association between natural gas and respiratory illnesses such as asthma. It even found a lower risk of bronchitis compared to the use of electric stoves.<\/p>\n

The Colorado website that consumers will be directed to by the warning labels makes no mention of these studies, instead presenting health consequences as a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s strictly a political campaign with a political strategy, and they believe this is a winning issue,\u201d Blackmon said.<\/p>\n

Beyond Berkeley: The push to ban gas stoves is back<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In 2020, Berkeley, California, became the first city in the U.S. to ban natural gas hookups<\/a> in new construction. The California Restaurant Association sued the city, arguing the ban was preempted by federal law. Ultimately,\u00a0federal courts agreed<\/a>, and the law was never allowed to go into effect.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0according to the\u00a0Grist<\/em><\/a>, a publication that also receives funding from several anti-fossil fuel activist groups<\/a>, some cities and states are looking for \u201ccreative\u201d ways to sidestep the legal challenges that killed Berkeley\u2019s anti-stove laws, which include emissions targets, building codes, and limits on indoor air pollution.<\/p>\n

In July, a\u00a0federal judge ruled<\/a> that a New York law banning natural gas connections in new homes and buildings doesn\u2019t conflict with federal law. A coalition of building and trade associations wrote to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in June, asking her to file legal challenges to the law.<\/p>\n

“The gas ban violates core constitutional principles of interstate commerce by attempting to dictate national energy usage through state-level restrictions. It burdens domestic energy production, raises costs on middle-class homeowners, and compromises energy reliability and economic freedom,” the\u00a0coalition wrote in their letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite a large body of research disputing claims that gas stoves pose significant health risks to consumers, activists are looking for avenues all across the U.S. to stop people from using the appliances. While the Biden administration failed to enact a federal ban on gas stoves, these local and state efforts may prove successful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bans on gas stoves come back as Democratic cities and states continue war on gas appliances   The Biden administration tried and failed to enact a federal ban on gas stoves, and then denied the plans, convincing media “fact-checkers” to call it a “right-wing conspiracy.” A federal court shot down Berkeley’s ban on natural gas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786\/revisions\/788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sterlingcooper.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}