House Passes Bill Blocking Theoretical Ban on Gas Stoves

The Republican-led House passed a bill on Tuesday ostensibly aimed at preventing a federal ban on gas stoves — a ban that no agency nor the White House has said is in the works. 

The bill passed by a 248-180 margin, with 29 Democrats joining the GOP in support.

The move comes after a week of dysfunction in the House, with a group of conservatives blocking votes in protest over the debt ceiling deal Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) negotiated with President Joe Biden.

Gas stoves have jumped to the forefront of the culture wars in recent months, as the negative health effects of burning a fossil fuel indoors have been further publicized. New York recently became the first state to ban gas stoves in new construction, and a number of cities including Seattle and Los Angeles have made similar moves. Those efforts face considerable backlash, as conservatives argue against what they say is consistent government overreach.

How did we get here?

The bill, known as the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, would bar the Consumer Product Safety Commission from using federal funds to ban gas stoves. The commission has opened an inquiry into the health effects of cooking with gas and could eventually issue regulations for new stoves to reduce those effects. But that would have no effect on stoves already in use.

That hasn’t stopped Republicans from claiming a ban is imminent. During a committee hearing in May, Rep. Pat Fallon (R–Texas) said that “the Biden administration is looking to regulate gas stoves out of existence.” The bill passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee with some support from Democrats.

Decades of evidence has piled up on the harmful effects of gas stoves, which emit methane, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and other pollutants. Children in households with unventilated gas stoves have higher rates of asthma, and there is more limited evidence linking the appliances to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive problems.

Next steps

The House is expected to vote on a similar bill on Wednesday, the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, would prevent the Department of Energy from finalizing a rule that would raise efficiency standards for gas and electric stoves. The Department of Energy has estimated that about half of stoves on the market would not meet the new standard, but again, the agency has stressed that it would have no effect on existing stoves.

“Nobody’s taking my gas stove. Nobody will take your gas stove,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in May.

The first bill passed after McCarthy and the Republican holdouts reached a deal to move forward on Monday night. In spite of that deal, the lawmakers warned they could still block other legislation unless a "power-sharing" deal with the speaker is reached.

The Democratic-led Senate is unlikely to take up the two bills. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) has sided with Republicans in the gas stove wars. Last month, he blocked a vote on a Biden Energy Department nominee over the proposed regulation. 

“While I appreciate that these rules would only apply to new stoves, my view is that it’s part of a broader, administration-wide effort to eliminate fossil fuels,” he said.