Joe Biden is coming for your gas stoves.
Last month the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said gas-powered stoves are a ‘hidden health hazard.’
“Natural gas stoves, which are used in about 40% of homes in the US, emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter at levels the EPA and World Health Organization have said are unsafe and linked to respiratory illness, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and other health conditions, according to reports by groups such as the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society.” – the federal agency said last month.
Earlier this month the Department of Energy proposed a new ‘efficiency’ rule.
“This approach by DOE could effectively ban gas appliances,” said Jill Notini, a vice president with the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. “We are concerned this approach could eliminate fully featured gas products.”
The new efficiency rule could ban 50% of current gas stove models, according to a new analysis by the Department of Energy.
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers however said 95% of the market for new gas products would likely not meet the new proposed rules.
E&E News reported:
Half of gas stove models sold in the United States today won’t comply with a first-ever efficiency regulation on cooking appliances, according to a new analysis from the Department of Energy.
The projection, which DOE posted online two weeks after the rule’s release Jan. 31, aims to provide more clarification on the expected impact of a proposal earlier this month that is now receiving comments from the public (Energywire, Feb. 1).
DOE says the cooking regulation will preserve some market share for gas stoves that have at least one high-input rate burner and continuous cast iron grates, two features that DOE determined are priorities for the public. Both features use a lot of energy.
“DOE’s analysis is constructed so that the proposed standard would ensure that products with at least one HIR burner and continuous grates can continue to be available on the market,” Jeremy Ortiz, a department spokesperson, told E&E News on Thursday.
“We did go out of our way to make sure that these two features would remain on the market in creating our analysis,” Ortiz said. “Over half the market would remain if this standard is finalized as proposed.” Ortiz’s comments provide more context on a plan that has triggered partisan rancor in Washington D.C.
DOE mentioned the 50 percent projection in a memo called a notice of data availability released last week to present new analysis on market impacts and answer questions lobbed by industry. In that document, DOE said 40 percent of the current gas stove market does not have those two features and would likely comply with the proposed regulation of 1,204 thousand British thermal units (kBtu) of energy use annually.
