Federal Agency Advances Gas Stove Proposal From Commissioner Who Floated Ban

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A U.S. agency has advanced a request for information on gas stove hazards after it was filed by a commissioner who has floated banning the stoves.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on March 1 it is seeking information from the public “on chronic chemical hazards from gas ranges.”

The commission released a draft public notice on the request for information, but has not released the final notice. The final one should be published in the Federal Register next week, a commission spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.

Members of the public are being told they’re welcome to submit comments on how many U.S. homes have gas ranges, how the commission should evaluate risks related to gas stove usage, and what information should be part of labels with warnings about hazards on stoves, among other aspects of the issue.

The commission is also requesting “proposed solutions to those hazards.”

The vote to approve publication of the notice was 3–1, a commission spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email. Commissioners Mary Boyle, Richard Trumka Jr., and Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric voted in favor, while Commissioner Peter Feldman voted against.

Trumka, a Biden appointee, floated a ban on gas stoves in January.

“Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” he told Bloomberg at the time.

Trumka also wrote in an internal memorandum that “the need for gas stove regulation has reached a boiling point” and that the commission “has the responsibility to ban consumer products that emit hazardous substances, particularly, when those emissions harm children, under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act.”

“There is sufficient information available for CPSC to issue an NPR in FY 2023 proposing to ban gas stoves in homes,” Trumka also wrote. NPR stands for notice of proposed rulemaking.

The White House and Hoehn-Saric later said they weren’t in favor of banning gas stoves. Some lawmakers have introduced bills that would block the CPSC from banning gas stoves.

The approved request for information (RFI) “does not constitute or propose any regulatory action or ban,” Hoehn-Saric said in a statement this week. “The chronic hazards that can arise from toxic emissions should be studied and that is what we are doing with this RFI. I welcome the public’s input and data during the comment period.”

The RFI was initiated by Trumka during an October 2022 meeting.uld direct staff to prepare an RFI. The prepared RFI was later approved.

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