(IntegrityTimes.com) – Over the summer, after heated debate in the House of Representatives, the House passed bipartisan legislation to prevent the federal government from banning gas stoves. This came after several high-profile articles and studies were released that suggested gas stoves were harmful to people’s health as well as the environment. Richard L. Trumka Jr. of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) commented in an interview that a ban on gas stoves may be a future goal. He later walked back this remark.
Vice President Kamala Harris has come under fire for a second time for posting pictures of herself standing near her gas stove with her husband Doug Emhoff in seeming defiance of the Biden-Harris administrations support for banning them. She posted a similar photo over the Thanksgiving holiday and was criticized about it then as well. Anonymous users as well as government officials such as Georgia House Representative Mike Collins called the VP out on the social media site, X, to mock her for her apparent hypocrisy with some users believing she was trying to partially block the stove this time to avoid criticism.
Harris is also getting some online pushback for what she was preparing with her much-maligned cooking appliance. She said she was making beef wellington for Christmas dinner. While the dish is a perennial favorite for holiday meals, some commenters seemed offended that Harris, who has advocated for reducing meat consumption, was celebrating the holiday with a festive dish made of beef. During the 2020 presidential race she said she supported altering the USDA food pyramid to encourage Americans to eat less meat in order to fight climate change. She added there should be a system of incentives leading to eventual banning of behaviors that are deemed bad for the environment.
An Energy Department spokesperson commenting on the gas stove debate, says that they are not proposing bans, but they will be setting efficiency standards for both gas and electric cooktops but added that the new more strict standards will not be implemented until 2027. However, several cities and states have proposed new restrictions that, if implemented, would effectively ban them going forward. Berkeley, CA passed a ban on gas hookups in newly constructed commercial or residential buildings which was later overturned but the battle to eliminate or preserve them is still ongoing.
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