|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Four members of the Alabama Congressional delegation — Sen. Katie Britt, Rep. Moore, Rep. Palmer, and Rep. Rogers — have fixed their sights on regulation of gas stoves as the next issue of government overreach.
Britt, as a member of the Energy and Water Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and six other senators including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, introduced S.1859, the “Save Our Gas Stoves Act, on June 7. In the house, Palmer and Rogers cosponsored a companion bill, HR1640, which passed the House of Representatives on June 14. Moore also voiced support for HR1615, the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, which also passed on June 14.
“President Biden and the radical left want to use the bureaucracy to control every aspect of our lives,” Moore said. “While Alabamians are worried about putting food on the table for their families in the midst of record inflation, Biden is intent on controlling the stoves they use to cook that food, and all so he can pander to his wealthy environmentalist base. Americans deserve to make appliance purchases without our bloated bureaucracy standing in their way.”
The companion bills would strike a proposed Department of Energy (DoE) energy conservation rule, formally a supplied notice of proposed rulemaking (SNOPR), that imposes maximum allowed energy consumption levels for gas and electric cooktops. Gas cooktops would be limited to consuming 1,204 kBTU/year.
A DoE memo analyzing the rule said it would effectively ban slightly more than half of consumer models on the market, but a letter by the National Propane Gas Association suggests 96 percent of gas cooktops tested by DoE would be out of compliance.
HR1615, meanwhile, would prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to regulate gas stoves as hazardous.
“There is perhaps no greater example of government overreach than the radical attempts to eradicate the use of gas stoves,” Britt said. “I’m proud to join Senator Sullivan and my colleagues in introducing this commonsense measure to ensure that hardworking American families continue to have access to affordable appliance choices for their homes.”
The opposed legislators frame the resolutions as protecting American consumers from regulatory overreach that aims to promote electric and eliminate gas. Others point to environmental concern within the responsibility of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) as well as health concerns. A 2022 study calculated that leaks and incomplete combustion lead to methane emissions from all US gas stoves equivalent to that of 500,000 cars.
“Hard working Alabama families deserve access to affordable appliances choices for their homes and they appreciate their right to choose the clean, efficient fuel source to power those appliances,” Laurel Bunn, executive director of the Alabama Propane Gas Association, said. “The SNOPR fails to account for the cost of fuel switching or the cost to be borne by consumers. These factors may compel fuel switching on consumers. The compelled fuel switching and elimination of consumer choice is anticompetitive in nature and contrary to EPCA.”
In Alabama, 18 percent of households use gas cooking appliance. The gas industry supplying them contributes $156,345 to the state economy annually and employs 785 individuals.
“The market upheaval in such a short amount of time will be enormous. Various models of gas cooktops which meet the proposed standard may be available, but are not currently sold in the United States,” the NPGA letter reads. “Only one model of gas cooktop tested meets the proposed standard. DOE’s proposed rule gives that single model a significant competitive advantage vis-a-vis all potential manufacturers, given that it is the only model which would be in compliance.
