(Bloomberg) -- House Republicans are taking aim at gas stoves, voting on a pair of bills starting Tuesday afternoon that would block regulation of the kitchen appliances that serve as a platform for debate over US President Joe Biden’s energy policies.
One bill, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, would prohibit the independent Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to ban gas stoves as hazardous products. The other, the Save Our Stoves Act, slated for Wednesday, would bar the Energy Department from finalizing a proposed rule setting efficiency standards for the appliances.
“Americans should be the ones deciding what they use in their kitchen, not out-of-touch government bureaucrats,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana. “House Republicans will always defend your freedoms and fight to keep big government out of your home.”
While the Biden administration doesn’t have plans to ban gas stoves, Republicans have seized on the issue since the CPSC’s Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg in January that he would consider it as part of efforts to address health and environmental emission concerns, painting Democrats as the party of government overreach.
Gas stoves, which are used in about 40% of homes in the US, emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels the Environmental Protection Agency and World Health Organization have said are unsafe and linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, cancer and other health conditions, according to multiple studies.
“Republicans are deliberately misleading the American people about gas stoves,” Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, said. “Their political stunts are designed to scare consumers while protecting their fossil fuel friends and endangering children.”
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.