Let Them Use Electric Stoves

Government bureaucrats love to regulate: from the thickness of ketchup to the pants you can wear on mopeds, everything falls under their gaze. This past week, they tried to tell Americans how they’re allowed to prepare their breakfasts and dinners. They’ve since retreated in the face of wide-ranging criticism, but the number of champions for the regulation who quickly emerged in politics and media promise it’s not the last we’ve heard of it.

On January 9, news broke that Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr. from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said that gas stoves are a “hidden hazard,” concluding, “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric walked back Trumka’s comment after the idea faced significant backlash, and the White House further said it won’t be going after gas stoves. But don’t get too hopeful: as others have pointed out, the proposal to ban gas stoves was likely just a “trial balloon” that exploded too soon for these bureaucrats’ liking. Don’t be surprised to see more of these balloons soaring in the sky as the government tries to outflank the pesky resistance in the future. 

This wouldn’t be the first time that government officials tried to regulate gas stoves. Berkeley, California, gained the dubious honor in 2019 of becoming the “first city in the U.S. to change its building code to ban gas hookups in new buildings.” And like other radical ideas that originated in Berkeley, gas stove bans spread to other parts of the country, including New York City and Washington, D.C. If these government functionaries had their way, the federal government would now finish the job by enacting a nationwide ban.  

Besides the potential of such a ban to gut the restaurant industry—which has already suffered a great deal from the Covid lockdowns—it would hurt approximately the thirty-five percent of all American homes that have gas stoves. It’s true that even before the CPSC walked back the proposed ban completely, Trumka stated that the “CPSC isn’t coming for anyone’s gas stoves” as regulations would “apply to new products.” But what about Americans who move to new houses and apartments? Should they not be allowed to have gas stoves? 

Even if using gas stoves entails supposed health risks—risks that, in many cases, are either overblown or completely fabricated—shouldn’t it be up to American families to determine what risks they’re willing to accept to accommodate their cooking needs?

Not if you’re a federal regulator. The CPSC’s attempt to reach its hands into America’s kitchens is symptomatic of what happens when the administrative state goes unchecked. Far-reaching regulations that affect tens of millions of American families should be decided in lively debates in the halls of Congress, not on Twitter. But the people who want to tell you how to run your kitchen don’t want that, because it’s much easier to enact their plans at the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen than it is to pass a bill through Congress. 

As the administrative state accrues more and more power (while Congress happily sits by and watches), federal agencies like the CPSC will continue to issue edicts that Americans never wanted or voted for. 

And it’s hard to imagine the members of our ruling class will suddenly all switch to electric if the proposed ban is ever enacted. The week that the proposed ban came to light, Jill Biden was ridiculed after a photo surfaced of her previously using a gas stove. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who never met a subject she doesn’t have an opinion on, claims that gas stoves can cause brain damage—even though she has one in her own home. Senator Elizabeth Warren, another critic of gas stoves, uses a gas oven.

Surprised? These are the same sorts of people who imposed Covid lockdowns on the citizenry while they themselves went to fancy restaurants, got their hair done, and excused violent rioters who broke Covid lockdowns. Their own rules rarely apply to them. 

Americans should rejoice at the massive backlash that the CPSC rightly faced over its tilting at gas stoves. But we can’t get complacent, because it is in the nature of federal agencies to continue to expand and bloat. Our elected representatives have to put a stop to these bureaucrats sticking their noses into every corner of our lives.  

The CPSC will likely try to ban gas stoves again, but until then, enjoy not having your Jambalaya ruined by the uneven heating of an electric stove.