At least one Democrat joined the fray. “This is a recipe for disaster,” Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner. I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”
Mike Sommers, the president of the American Petroleum Institute, said a ban on gas stoves was “not going to happen.” He predicted a backlash from homeowners across the country. Gas stoves are used in about 35 percent of households nationwide, or about 40 million homes.
“People love their gas stoves,” Mr. Sommers said.
Researchers have increasingly documented significant indoor air pollution and negative health impacts from gas stoves.
A study published in December estimated that gas-burning stoves are responsible for 12.7 percent of childhood asthma in the United States. Gas stoves emit nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter when they are turned on, sometimes at levels that exceed guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency and the World Health Organization. They also release other harmful air pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer, and can even leak those chemicals when they are turned off.
The debate over proposals to limit the use of gas in homes because of its impact on climate change and public health has grown since 2019, when Berkeley became the first city in the country to ban gas hookups in most new homes and buildings. Since then, dozens of cities in California and across the country have enacted similar ordinances that target not just gas stoves, but other appliances like gas-fired furnaces and water heaters.
On Tuesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York proposed that the legislature phase out the sale of fossil fuel heating equipment in existing residential buildings beginning in 2030 and require new residential and commercial buildings be all-electric by 2025 and 2030, respectively.
A stream of Republican lawmakers attacked Mr. Trumka and the Biden administration on Twitter for even contemplating restrictions on gas stoves. “Unelected bureaucrats should not have the type of power to even consider such an action,” Representative Gary Palmer, Republican of Alabama, wrote. “It is time to rein in the Biden administration and their continual desire to control American’s lives and decisions.”
