The Biden administrations Consumer Product Safety Commission drew heat over the past several days after officials floated a ban on stoves fueled by natural gas.
CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. remarked during an interview with Bloomberg that gas stoves represent a hidden hazard and said any option is on the table for banning the popular appliances. CPSC Chairman Alex Hoehn-Saric later walked back the statement and clarified that neither he nor the agency is seeking to prohibit gas stoves.
Some 38% of American households use gas stoves for cooking, with the figure approaching 70% for states such as California and New Jersey, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. The appliances indeed present a number of advantages to the typical household: the average family using natural gas saves as much as $1,041 each year for all applications compared to the average family using electric appliances, according to data provided to The Daily Wire by the American Gas Association.
Other comments from Trumka, an appointee of President Joe Biden and the son of late AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, resurfaced amid the controversy. I think we need to be talking about regulating gas stoves, the second-generation bureaucrat said last month, whether thats drastically improving emissions or banning gas stoves entirely. He encouraged attendees of a webinar to keep that possibility of a ban in mind while adding that regulatory authority is a powerful tool in our toolbox and its a real possibility.
Left-of-center policymakers leaped to the defense of the nanny state in recent days. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hurried to inform Representative Ronny Jackson (R-TX), who formerly served as physician to the president, that exposure to nitrogen dioxide is linked to reduced cognitive performance. Footage nevertheless resurfaced showing Ocasio-Cortez cooking with a gas stove in what appeared to be her apartment.
The campaign against gas stoves that came to public consciousness this week appears to be a broader play from the Left to regulate air quality.
The comments from Trumka follow a letter from multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), calling for regulations on gas stoves because of their supposed effects upon racial minorities and low-income households, who are more likely to experience disproportionate air pollution.
Citing the supposed risk of increased asthma among children, a study published in the Journal of Environmental Health two years ago called for a public information campaign, public policies addressing household air pollution risks associated with cooking with gas, requirement of warning labels on gas cooking stoves, and further research on the efficacy of available interventions. The researchers broadened the scope of their concerns to indoor air pollution in general, adding that household air can be more polluted than outdoor air even in large cities.
Another article from the World Economic Forum considered the consequences of indoor air pollution on global health. Citing data from the World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum said that indoor cooking stoves have links to a variety of health problems, including respiratory infections, asthma, heart disease, and cancer and kill as many as 4.3 million people each year.
The World Economic Forum is notorious for advancing stakeholder capitalism, the ESG movement, and other initiatives which leverage combined public and private power toward social goals deemed worthy by elites. Klaus Schwab, who has led the controversial organization for decades, garnered worldwide criticism for suggesting that the lockdown-induced recession presents an opportunity for elites to craft a Great Reset of the planets economic and social systems. The three components of the plan are governments promoting fairer outcomes in the marketplace, channeling investments toward equality and sustainability efforts, and using medical technology to address health and social challenges.
The World Economic Forum and the Biden administration share an extraordinarily similar philosophy: manipulate outcomes in the marketplace through cooperation between government agencies and large corporations. The Biden administration has explicitly partnered with the World Economic Forum through the First Movers Coalition, a public-private partnership to commercialize clean technologies through advance purchase commitments.
Several members of the Biden administration, as well as multiple Democratic lawmakers and a handful of their Republican colleagues, are slated to attend the World Economic Forum next week in Davos. As the policymakers mount their private jets for Switzerland in the coming days to discuss carbon emissions, the American people ought to remember that banning gas stoves is a trivial matter in comparison to manipulating the socioeconomic future of the human race.
