A year ago, a Biden administration official set off a firestorm when he suggested the Consumer Product Safety Commission could ban gas stoves, because they have been linked to childhood asthma. Cue the outrage.
On Monday, the administration released its new standards. Your gas stove is safe.
The US Energy Department announced new energy efficiency standards for ovens and stoves, and the big takeaway is: Not much is changing. The department assured that the vast majority of gas stoves on the market – 97% – already meet the standards.
The main target of the new efficiency standards is electric stoves, the Appliance Standards Awareness Project said, ensuring that all new models of smooth-top units use at least 30% less energy than the lowest-performing models today. At least 77% of the electric ranges already meet those standards.
“It’s a modest money saver for consumers, with changes that would be challenging to even notice. There was disagreement over this stoves rule last year, but then the stakeholders came together and resolved it,” said Andrew deLaski, executive director of the Appliance Standards Awareness Project, in a statement.
The new efficiency standards align with a plan released in September 2023 by a group of stakeholders, including ASAP, which is made up of home appliance manufacturers and consumer, climate and efficiency advocates.
The DOE also wants to improve the efficiency of 3% of new gas stoves sold. But consumers’ favorite features will still be intact, the Energy Department said.
“The standards will not result in the loss of any consumer-desired features in future models, such as continuous cast-iron grates, high input rate burners, and other specialty burners,” the DOE said in a release Monday.
What the administration says the new standards will do, however, is save Americans about $1.6 billion on their utility bills over 30 years. The energy savings would also do good for the environment, decreasing harmful carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 4 million metric tons over three decades, the DOE claimed.
The compliance will be required by newly manufactured models beginning January 31, 2028, and includes imported stoves.
If the DOE finalizes all of its pending standards from the backlog of updating efficiency standards, the agency projects it will save consumers $1 trillion and cut at least 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years. The September 2023 plan recommended efficiency level standards for refrigerators and freezers, beverage and wine chillers, dishwashers, stoves, clothes washers and clothes dryers — the DOE has now adopted standards for stoves and refrigerators.
Political firestorm over gas stoves
Last year, Richard Trumka Jr., then a US Consumer Product Safety commissioner, set off a political firestorm when he suggested the agency could ban gas stoves because they have been linked to childhood asthma.
Trumka had confirmed to CNN that “everything’s on the table” when it comes to gas stoves, but stressed that any ban would apply only to new gas stoves, not existing ones.
At the time, a White House spokesperson said, “The President does not support banning gas stoves — and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is independent, is not banning gas stoves.”
“We are not looking to go into anyone’s homes and take away items that are already there. We don’t do that,” Trumka previously said. “If and when we get to regulation on the topic, it’s always forward looking. You know, it applies to new products. Consumers always have the choice of what to keep in their homes, and we want to make sure they do that with full information.”
Gas stoves are popular appliances in the US — in 2020, nearly 2 in 5 homes had a gas stove or oven. His remarks had quickly sparked controversy among more conservative lawmakers.
“This is a recipe for disaster. The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner,” Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia previously said on Twitter. “I can tell you the last thing that would ever leave my house is the gas stove that we cook on.”