The White House is more focused on efforts to ban your gas stoves than replenishing the emergency oil reserves.
That was the message from U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who appeared before the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday.
At a budget hearing for the 2024 fiscal year, Washington Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse pressed the energy secretary over a draft rule proposed in February that would outlaw “96 percent of tested residential gas stove tops.” The proposed rule, Newhouse said, would put gas stoves out of reach for most Americans.
“There is no ban on gas stoves. I have a gas stove,” Granholm said. “It is just about making the existing electric and gas stoves and all the other appliances more efficient. It is a proposed rule, so the full range of gas stoves, absolutely, is not affected.”
“In fact, half the gas stoves that are on the market right now wouldn’t even be impacted,” Granholm added, explaining the stoves that would be impacted are “high-end” appliances that, she said, constitute a “wasteful use of natural gas.”
The remarks follow controversial comments from Richard Trumka Jr., a Biden appointee to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), who mused about an outright ban on gas stoves, telling Bloomberg in January, “any option is on the table.”
“Products that can’t be safe can be banned,” said Trumka.
Public outrage led the administration to backtrack on the proposal and pledge that no federal ban was being considered.
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