Gas Stove Ban
A branch of the federal government has announced they are viewing a ban on gas stoves in the United States. This ban is due to a recent study, saying gas stoves can cause childhood asthma, and it does not include any current gas stoves. Futher, the banning is only for the production and sale of gas stoves in the United States.
This would be the first major item that the federal government would ban involving natural gas. Invented by a British man named James Sharp in 1826, the gas stove was in most of the households in the whole world by the 1920s. In a study conducted in 2020, 38% percent of households still owned a gas stove.
The gas stove was always rivaled by the electric stove, but things began to ramp up more recently when the government began making natural gas prices higher, which makes natural gas stoves less ideal. The electric stove still spends your money, but the government is going to try to make you think that it will be less. If you look, the numbers are very similar. Also, the numbers are very similar when it comes to energy
If you look at the facts, the natural gas stove is more energy efficient, which is part of the reason the government wants to ban them. Gas stoves are considered dangerous, but if this happens, what’s next? Most people still have propane heat, so how does the government know that propane tanks are not the reason? Perhaps the government sees natural gas stoves as a potential steppingstone to keep slowly banning things that use natural gas. The current administration has not been shy about their electric, energy-efficient, agenda, which is part of what President Biden ran for - - climate change. This current ban is clearly a steppingstone to their path, and it would be a good start. But the problem is, they cannot prove the gas stove dangers without any reasonable doubt.
If you have ever used a gas stove, you know that you must turn the knob to light it, and once it is lit, the natural gas does not flow as hard. So yes, if you left your gas stove on light, it could cause issues. But nobody does that. The studies are done with the oven ON LIGHT. That is when the stove is emitting the most natural gas and would obviously boost those numbers.
The federal government needs to gather more research before making this decision, because banning gas stoves will have severe ramifications. As a person who lives in a household with a gas stove (and has lived in one with an electric stove) I see no difference between them. The air quality feels the same; I just don’t see anything different or wrong with a gas stove. If the administration does impose the ban, it could be a fatal blow to any potential reelection in 2024.
