Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and officials from 20 other states are calling on the U.S. Department of Energy to abandon proposed new emission standards for gas stoves that they say would sideline more than 50% of the stoves currently on the market.
An April 3 letter signed by the 21 attorneys general urges Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm not to move forward with revised regulations for conventional home cooking products. The new rules would reduce the consumer product choices now available to Americans, according to the letter.
Landry and the other attorneys general argue that the new rules have little support and that they are based on arbitrary assumptions made through the administration’s calculation of the social costs of carbon, methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The regulations also fly in the face of traditional interpretations of federalism and the Constitution’s commerce clause because they would attempt to extend the DOE’s authority to intrastate commerce, according to the letter.
“Despite all the spin from the White House proclaiming otherwise, this proposed rule leaves no doubt about it: The Biden administration is indeed coming for your gas stoves,” Landry said in a prepared statement. “This form is no different than the last; both are unlawful and unattainable green energy fantasies from a failed president.”
A spokeswoman for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers said the association welcomed the support from the attorneys general.
“This is an issue that people are passionate about,” Jill Notini told the Louisiana Record in an email, “and we hope that the Department of Energy will consider the impact these standards would have on the 40% of the country that uses gas cooking products and back down from its incredibly stringent proposed standards.”
The proposed federal standards for gas stoves would effectively ban such appliances, according to Notini. AHAM members have conducted their own testing using the standards and concluded that no gas stoves currently marketed to consumers are able to meet the proposed rule.
The AHAM is supporting federal legislation by Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Arizona) that would prohibit regulators from imposing emission standards if they make most of the current gas-cooking appliances unavailable to consumers.