It’s cool if you are unaware of the Biden administration’s nefarious plot to steal your stove—it isn’t a real thing that’s happening on Earth. It’s the kind of “news” you’re probably used to ignoring, but the idea of Joe Biden’s consumer protection brownshirts confiscating cooktops is a big enough fear to a lot of the country that the meme has escaped the far right funhouse and gathered enough cultural momentum for the House of Representative to pass two bills meant to prevent it from happening.
The origin of stove-hysteria
The flashpoint of the gas stove firestorm is a single quote from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr. In an interview with Bloomberg in January, Trumka described gas stoves as a “hidden hazard” based on research that could indicate gas stoves exacerbate asthma. Trumka said that “any option is on the table,” when it comes to gas stoves, and that “products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”
Trumpka quickly walked back the remark, saying, “We are not looking to go into anyone’s homes and take away items that are already there.” The Biden administration confirmed that it is not trying to take anyone’s stove. The CPSC’s chairman reiterated that the Commission was not in the stove-stealing business, and couldn’t be, even if it wanted to be.
That should have been the end of it. If these were normal times, the controversy would have provided a few days of outrage-fuel for right wing media figures and been quickly forgotten (or maybe inspired a good-faith debate about the safety of gas stoves and the wisdom of regulating them)—but this is 2023, so it went to Congress instead.
The perpetual outrage machine turns on
Trumka’s remark touched a nerve, stoking culture-war fears of an authoritative administration reaching into people’s kitchens. “Not only is Biden coming for your paycheck, he is coming for your stove,” said Fox News host Sean Hannity. “The White House is now attempting to ban all gas ovens and burners,” he added helpfully.
Not to be outdone by pundits, prominent Republicans with actual power quickly seized on the gas-stove meme. Congressman Ronny Jackson very reasonably tweeted, “I’ll NEVER give up my gas stove. If the maniacs in the White House come for my stove, they can pry it from my cold dead hands. COME AND TAKE IT!!”
Congressman Jim Jordan tweeted, “God. Guns. Gas stoves.”
“This is a war on stoves,” Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie said.
The Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act
The outrage over nearly nothing continued for months, despite many pointing out that it was silly, and culminated in the passage of both the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act and the Save Our Gas Stoves Act (aimed at Department of Energy) in the House of Representatives on June 13.
If they become laws, these bills would limit the power of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Energy in order to prevent them from doing something they were never planning to do in the first place.
Laws meant to send a message, not to govern
Fortunately, neither bill is likely to become a law. They are not expected to be taken up by the Senate, and even if they passed there, they’d likely be vetoed by the president. But actually passing laws doesn’t seem to be the intent here. There is room for a debate about the limits of regulatory agencies, but this ain’t it. These are “message bills,” meant to provide fodder for political ads, and perhaps to continue the relentless effort to keep part of the population angry and misinformed, while the rest of us tune it out (in favor of our own brand of spin).
The bottom line: Your gas stove is safe
I like cooking with gas, so I’m glad the Department of Energy has no plans to steal my stove. The agency is, however, studying the energy efficiency of both gas and electric stoves through 2024. The Consumer Product Safety Commission will no doubt continue its mission to protect the public from unreasonable risks from consumer products like stoves. Both of these efforts, at some undefined point in the future, could hypothetically result in a change in the standards already in place for gas stoves in the United States. This may be boring compared with the fiery, “come and TAKE THEM” Twitter rhetoric, but it’s comforting to know how dull the government actually is almost all the time.
