After repeatedly denying that it wants to formally ban natural gas-powered stoves, the Energy Department posted to the federal register its finalized regulation targeting kitchen appliances.
Critics from Congress to energy advocacy groups slammed the new rule, which administration officials have long denied would constitute a ban.
But American Energy Alliance president Tom Pyle said it nonetheless wins the “Triple Crown for bad regulations.”
“It’s ineffective, unnecessary, and likely illegal,” Pyle said, going on to acknowledge that the administration had watered-down the original 2023-drafted policy.
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“After receiving severe backlash for moving to ban gas stoves, the Biden-Harris administration settled for this rule, which they claim would lower costs for families. Of course, what they don’t tell you is their so-called savings is a mere 21 cents a year.”
Pyle said that if Democrats continue to hold power, the rule will be a “mere down payment” on future regulatory overreach that will try to control other mundane aspects of daily life like cooking.
“American consumers [are] fully capable of choosing the appliances that best suit their needs.”
The Department of Energy, however, defended the regulation – including against claims that it had waffled on the matter.
A spokesman said the rule posted to the federal register mirrors the regulation devised earlier in the year, and that this final rule has the support of groups like the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the Department of Energy is “building on decades-long efforts with industry to ensure our appliances work more efficiently and save Americans money.”
“When you look past misleading rhetoric, you’ll see that our appliance standards actions are intended for nothing more than promoting innovation and increasing energy efficiency without sacrificing the reliability and performance that Americans have come to expect and rely on.”
However, lawmakers who have tried to blunt “bans” or regulations on home appliances and other implements that require fossil fuel power were not convinced of the new rule’s benefits.
In 2023, Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., successfully drafted an amendment to an energy bill that would prohibit Granholm’s department from implementing the original energy standard for cooktops.
“If this draconian rule were carried out, it would eliminate anywhere between 50-95% of today’s gas appliances,” Newhouse said at the time.
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“Gas appliances are at the center of American households. They power our stoves, furnaces, water heaters and fireplaces,” he said, calling natural gas “affordable, reliable and safe.”
On Thursday, a spokesman for Newhouse said the lawmaker’s efforts were a “leading factor” in having the original rule rescinded and revised to its current form.
“While this new rule will still require strenuous federal oversight by Congress, it does prevent states like California and Washington from implementing sweeping, radical rules that are completely unreasonable for consumers and producers and will only pave the way for other states to follow,” the spokesman said.
Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., whose Gas Stove Protection & Freedom Act passed the House but has languished in the Senate for a year, called the new rule being posted “incredibly frustrating and out of touch.”
“Americans are concerned about the fentanyl crisis that is crippling communities, and many Americans are worried about being able to provide for their families and put food on the table. Instead of considering the immediate needs of many Americans, the administration has chosen to prioritize attacking gas stoves to appease climate extremists,” Armstrong said, adding that it shows that the administration wants to control every aspect of life.
Heritage Action for America vice president Ryan Walker said the Department of Energy is “villanizing natural gas” despite its affordability and clean-burning qualities.
“After insisting they had no plans to ban gas stoves, the Biden-Harris administration just plowed ahead with its new rule that may price the hugely popular appliances out of existence,” Walker said, adding, “The Left only cares about virtue signaling and pandering to their extreme base, not the hardworking Americans trying to make ends meet and put food on the table. The next conservative administration can and should reverse the Biden-Harris appliance crackdown.”
Democrats who were either vociferously opposed to Republican efforts to blunt regulations or in favor of such rules did not offer reaction to the news.
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Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., the ranking member on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, said of 2023 efforts to stop such regulation that “House Republicans are once again putting polluters over people.”
Pallone did not respond to a request for comment.
Neither did Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., who previously called cost-related concerns about forcing Americans off natural gas a “conspiracy theory cooked up to embroil Congress in culture wars that shed more heat than light on the issues facing our nation.”
The Philadelphia lawmaker said in 2023 the rule proposed at the time would save consumers $1.7 billion collectively.
One longtime Democrat did, however, speak out against the original 2023 draft of the rule – as Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.V., said the feds “have no business telling American families how to cook their dinner.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
