The House passed the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act on June 13, marking another salvo in the conflict between Democrats and Republicans over the future of gas stoves.
The bill made it through the chamber with 248 yeas and 180 nays.
H.R. 1615 can be read here.
Debate over the measure failed to start last week due to conflict among Republicans.
Alongside House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Dan Bishop (R-N.C.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), and Chip Roy (R-Texas) all moved against considering the legislation and other bills as a show of displeasure with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) over the debt ceiling deal.
Before the June 13 vote took place, lawmakers debated the measure’s merits. It would restrict the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC’s) ability to regulate or possibly even ban new gas stoves.
“The weaponization of government against our energy industry only serves to make our energy future less secure,” said Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.), a supporter of the legislation.
“This legislation is about ensuring that American families have access to the products and the energy resources that they need and that they want,” he added.
“I just don’t quite understand the energy and hysteria almost in places about gas stoves. No one is taking away your gas stove,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), an opponent of the bill.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced the Senate version of the legislation in February. It’s been referred to a committee.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the White House to see if President Joe Biden would veto the legislation should it pass both chambers of Congress.
Targets Consumer Product Safety Commission
The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act is meant to shield those appliances from any significant new restrictions emanating from the CPSC, an agency created by Congress in 1972 through the Consumer Product Safety Act.
It bars the CPSC from regulating gas stoves as a banned hazardous product.
In addition, it prevents the agency from putting any consumer product safety standards into effect that would either ban gas stoves or “substantially increase the average price of gas stoves in the United States.”
The gas stove furor traces back to agency Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.’s comments to Bloomberg News in January regarding the possibility gas stoves could be prohibited.
“This is a hidden hazard. Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he said.
The White House moved swiftly to shut down any loose talk of gas stove bans.
On Jan. 11, it told CNN that Biden “does not support banning gas stoves.”
It stated that the commission, “which is independent, is not banning gas stoves.”
Yet, a later story from Fox News drew attention to Trumka’s internal memorandum from late 2022 outlining the case for a prohibition on gas stoves.
The memo was reviewed by The Epoch Times and can be read here.
During the June 13 debate over the bill, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) questioned concerns over the comments from Trumka.
The commissioner, Pallone said, “doesn’t have the power to effectuate” a ban “because he’s only one person.”
Trumka’s controversial comments to Bloomberg News came shortly after the release of a widely publicized, peer-reviewed study linking gas stoves to childhood asthma.
The article’s authors included representatives of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank with connections to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Their study faced skepticism at the time, including from the natural gas industry.
In a Jan. 10 statement, the American Gas Association said the paper was “not substantiated by sound science,” as it relied on population-level associations rather than any direct examination of the appliances and ignored another population-level investigation that did not establish a correlation between gas stove use and asthma.
Complementary Bill
The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act comes alongside another bill, the Save Our Stoves Act, which targets a parallel effort by the Department of Energy to regulate gas stoves—one that could take approximately half the models now available out of the picture, according to the agency’s own assessment.
The former was originally introduced by Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) in March, in coordination with the Save Our Stoves Act that Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) introduced.
“Our bills make it clear that Americans should decide if a gas stove is right for their families, not the federal government,” Armstrong said in a press release at the time.
Those Republican-led efforts met with criticism during a June 5 Rules Committee hearing from Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.).
“Contrary to the rhetoric out there, the government is not coming for anybody’s gas stoves,” she said.
GOPers see the situation differently.
“My constituents are right to worry,” said Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) in his opening remarks during that same hearing.
From The Epoch Times