Joe Biden is coming for your gas stoves.
Last month the US Consumer Product Safety Commission said gas-powered stoves pose a ‘hidden health hazard’.
“Natural gas stoves used in about 40% of homes in the US emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter, which the EPA and World Health Organization say are unsafe and linked to respiratory disease. Reports by groups such as the Institute for Policy Integrity and the American Chemical Society report that cardiovascular problems, cancer and other health conditions, 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, vice president of the Appliance Manufacturers Association. “We are concerned that this approach may completely eliminate featured gas products.”
A new efficiency rule could ban 50% of current gas stove models, according to a new analysis by the Department of Energy.
The Home Appliances Manufacturers Association says 95% of the new gas appliances market will not meet the new proposed rules.
E&E News reports:
Half of the gas stove models sold in the United States today do not comply with efficiency regulations for the first time on cooking appliances, according to a new analysis by the Department of Energy.
The projection, which DOE posted online two weeks after the Jan. 31 release of the rule, aims to provide more clarity on the expected impact of the proposal, which was receiving comments from the public earlier this month (EnergyWire, Feb. 1).
DOE says the cooking regulation will preserve some market share for gas stoves with at least one high-input rate burner and continuous cast iron grates, two features DOE has determined are priorities for the public. Both features consume a lot of power.
“DOE’s analysis was constructed so that the proposed standard would ensure that products with at least one HIR burner and continuous grates remain available on the market,” department spokesman Jeremy Ortiz told E&E News on Thursday.
“In creating our analysis we went out of our way to make sure these two features remain in the market,” Ortiz said. “If this standard is finalized as proposed, half the market will remain.” Ortiz’s comments on the plan, which has sparked partisan animosity in Washington DC, provide more context
The DOE cited the 50 percent projection in a memo called the Notice of Data Availability released last week to present a new analysis of market impacts and answer questions lobbied by the industry. In that document, DOE said that 40 percent of the current gas stove market lacks those two features and would comply with the proposed regulation with an energy consumption of 1,204 thousand British thermal units (kBtu) annually.
