Lawmakers are set to vote on Republican-introduced legislation this week — the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act (H.R. 1615) and the Save Our Gas Stoves Act (H.R. 1640) — that would give Congress the final say on some rules issued by the Biden administration.
The bills are in response to some of the administration’s regulatory policymaking designed to push the president’s woke agenda. Those regulations, some already implemented and some under consideration, would radically change how businesses operate and people live, while potentially destroying what’s left of the nation’s free-market economy.
According to the Washington Times:
Dozens of regulations have been implemented and dozens more are under consideration. That includes proposals that would effectively end the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles and force popular home appliances from the market, among them many models of gas stoves, refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines.
Another proposed rule would force companies to disclose “climate risk” data to the Securities and Exchange Commission. A separate proposal would weaken oversight of Medicaid by reducing eligibility reviews. The president also issued a unilateral rule canceling $400 billion in student debt.
Most of the proposed regulations are focused on quick implementation of Biden’s green energy agenda to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the name of saving the planet from the effects of climate change. Part of the administration’s endgame is to force all Americans to use only electric appliances for heating and cooking, and the two bills introduced in Congress are intended to block some of these green agenda regulations from being implemented.
Late last month, the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs reviewed both bills during a hearing titled “Consumer Choice on the Backburner: Examining the Biden Administration’s Regulatory Assault on Americans’ Gas Stoves.”
Kenneth Stein, vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, testified that the Biden administration’s rule on gas appliances is “yet another piece of this administration’s whole of government approach to targeting energy sources that it disapproves of for ideological reasons. It is an attempt to stop consumers from using a product, natural gas, that is affordable, abundant, and convenient. This proposed rule is deficient in its justification and is outright illegal, obviously violating the plain language of [the Energy Policy and Conservation Act].”
Speaking about the legislation, Representative Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said, “The regulatory regime has gone unchecked for decades and it’s time we return power to the American people, not the nameless, faceless bureaucrats in Washington.”
The summary for H.R. 1640 states the bill would keep the Department of the Energy (DOE) from amending “energy conservation standards for kitchen ranges or ovens if they would result in the unavailability of a product on account of the type of fuel the range or oven uses,” and that the “DOE may not finalize, implement, or enforce” the February 1, 2023 proposed rule on “energy conservation standards for consumer conventional cooking tops, including electric cooking tops, gas cooking tops, electrical ovens, and gas ovens.”
One of the bill’s sponsors, Representative Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), stated, “Our bills make it clear that Americans should decide if a gas stove is right for their families, not the federal government.”
The White House released a statement on Tuesday declaring that “the Administration is committed to ensuring that Americans have access to safe and efficient products and can make smart consumer choices based on independent safety information and data-driven efficiency standards that save families money. While the Administration has been clear that it does not support any attempt to ban the use of gas stoves, it strongly opposes H.R. 1615 and H.R. 1640.”
Emphasizing that the “Consumer Product Safety Commission is an independent agency of the United States government whose mission is to follow the best available data to promote the safety of consumer products,” the statement closes arguing that “H.R. 1615 and H.R. 1640 would undermine science-based Consumer Product Safety Commission decision-making and block common sense efforts to help Americans cut their energy bills.”
According to the Times:
Both measures are likely to attract some Democratic support. More than two dozen Democrats in March voted on a measure banning the Department of Energy from implementing the gas stove regulations when it was included as an amendment to an energy policy bill.
Though passage of the bills in the House is fairly certain, the legislation most likely will not see the light of day in the Senate.
