The House voted on Tuesday to pass a bill to prohibit any potential federal ban on gas stoves, according to Politico.
Republican North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong sponsored the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, which prohibits the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from utilizing taxpayer dollars to enact an outright federal ban on gas stoves.
The bill passed by a 248-180 vote, with 29 Democrats crossing party lines to support the bill, according to Politico.
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Though there is no legislation mandating a federal gas stove ban on the books, CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr. said in January 2023 that “any option is on the table” regarding a possible federal ban.
“Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he continued.
The bill’s passage comes as multiple Democratic-controlled state and municipal governments have pursued legislative versions of gas stove bans in recent months.
The bill also prevents the CPSC from using taxpayer dollars to enforce any consumer safety standard which would result in the effective removal of gas stoves from the market or any significant increase in their mean price. “We know the motivation of the CPSC and throughout this entire administration is a green climate push,” Armstrong said, according to Politico.
Republican lawmakers have pointed to talk of a federal gas stove ban and a separate proposal for appliance efficiency standards from the Department of Energy as the latest examples of the Biden administration’s propensity for regulatory overreach, according to Politico.
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“Now they want to tell you what kind of stove you have to operate in your home and having to pick a less efficient and more costly option by banning gas stoves,” Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said of the bill, according to Politico. “We’re pushing back against that.”
Ben Lieberman, Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “the Biden administration has unleashed two agencies – the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Energy – to go after gas stoves, despite the fact that the American people overwhelmingly prefer to decide for themselves what to put in their kitchens.” The vote represents a Republican effort to halt “bureaucratic meddling” in the personal choices of consumers, Lieberman said.
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