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EXCLUSIVE: Biden administration officials have been quietly considering regulating natural gas cooktops for at least a year, much sooner than previously known, according to internal communications.
The communications, obtained by Fox News Digital through an inquiry this week, show that the little-known four-member Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was actively investigating legal justifications for regulations affecting gas stoves last summer. In June 2022, CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. a New York City ecogroup and asked for legal justification to enact standards for gas stoves, according to the documents.
“I would like to follow up on our discussion that took place on June 2, 2022,” WE ACT for Environmental Justice policy manager Yuwa Vosper wrote in an August email to Trumka and other CPSC officials. “During the call, Commissioner Trumka suggested we review the legal rationale for gas stove standards and labeling within the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA).”
“Since our call, I’ve done extensive research to make the connection and find the legal support that Commissioner Trumka was referring to within the FHSA,” Vosper continued. “That’s why I want to meet as a follow-up to discuss and determine if I’m on track with my thinking process for our organizational memorandum draft to advance our advocacy for gas stove regulation.”
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Richard Trumka Jr., a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission nominated by President Biden, is planning a follow-up meeting with an environmental group in August 2022 to discuss the legal basis for a potential gas stove regulation. (Fox News digital)
Ten minutes after Vosper sent the email, Trumka, who was nominated by President Biden in 2021, responded to schedule a follow-up interview for August 17. Johnson thanked them for the meeting.
Lipp also shared an Aug. 1 letter to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. — who chaired the House Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy at the time — sent to CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric, outlining the risks of gas stoves and asking if the committee had any standards planned for regulating the device.
In an Aug. 10 reply letter, also obtained through a request for information, Hoehn-Saric told Krishnamoorthi that CPSC employees were drafting gas stove standards.
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“In recognition of the importance of indoor air emissions and their impact on consumer health, CPSC staff are working to create voluntary standards to address the potential health hazards of indoor air emissions from gas stoves that create unreasonable risks of injury to consumers,” Hoehn -Saric wrote.
He also explained steps the CPSC could take to develop mandatory standards, noting that regulatory authorities are “particularly relevant to a potential mandatory standard addressing the hazards of gas stoves”.
CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. will be pictured at the White House on July 7, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In a statement, the CPSC said it is “false and misleading” to conclude that Hoehn-Saric’s letter suggested the agency was drafting standards for gas stoves.
“The CPSC is not setting standards to regulate gas stoves,” the CPSC told Fox News Digital.
“CPSC routinely works with industry and other stakeholders on voluntary standards,” the agency added. “In the case of gas stoves, staff have participated in voluntary indoor air quality standard activities for gas stoves along with several representatives from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and ASTM.”
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In early January, Trumka made headlines when he told Bloomberg in early January that a ban on gas stoves was “on the table” given the product’s alleged health effects. The White House later denounced a ban, but the CPSC went ahead anyway in March to take public feedback on gas stove safety.
The CPSC stated at the time that “no regulatory procedures are planned for gas stoves or range emissions”.
In February, after the CPSC put forward gas stove standards, the Department of Energy introduced its own gas stove regulations. (Brook Mitchell/The Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images | Davide Bonaldo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
“The American people deserve full transparency from government bureaucrats for every action they take, especially when it comes to overblown, unattainable, and elitist regulations that would adversely affect nearly 187 million Americans,” Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Washington, president of the Congressional Western Caucus and author of gas stove legislation, told Fox News Digital.
“Gas stoves offer Americans choice, affordability and reliability,” Newhouse continued. “The Biden administration has made their priorities clear with their proposed rule to take more than half of gas stoves off the market.”
Newhouse and other Republican lawmakers have repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for its efforts to regulate gas stoves. And lawmakers have proposed legislation that limits the federal government’s ability to take such action.
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In addition to the CPSC request for information, the Department of Energy proposed the regulations on Feb. 1, saying they would go into effect in 2027 and save Americans up to $1.7 billion while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm pushed back to criticismsaying she owned a gas stove and that the regulations would only affect 50% of current gas stove models.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
