Gas cookin’ up latest storm in US climate war

When you oppose Covid-19 lockdowns and support free choice of stoves then you have to expect heat from the American left.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris enjoys cooking for the family with husband Douglas Emhoff, according to a Twitter post. And yes, that’s a gas stove in the background. Picture: Twitter

If only I had a dollar every time I’ve been called a “cooker” recently on social media. You may not be aware but it has become fashionable in authoritarian circles to tar anyone opposed to lockdowns, compulsory Covid-19 vaccination or mandatory masking as a “cooker”.

Why “cooker”, I thought. Well, it’s now clear, if still a little cryptic. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission last week suggested gas stoves, indeed all home gas-powered appliances, should be banned for alleged health and environmental reasons.

Gas stoves have, apparently, been giving children asthma (by releasing nitrogen oxides) and exacerbating climate change (by releasing methane), according to a new study.

“This is a hidden hazard … Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” declared Richard Trumka, one of the CPSC’s commissioners, prompting furious national debate.

The same group of people upset about Covid-19 mandates tended to question the justification and motivations behind a mooted government ban on gas stoves.

Not only did I support free choice of cooking tools, I had a gas stove and, even more tellingly, used it regularly. Now everything made sense.

Senior American politicians quickly split on the issue. Democrat Governor of New York state, Kath Hochul, announced a plan to ban gas stoves, hot water heaters and oil furnaces in both new homes and commercial construction by 2030.

Chefs in the Big Apple’s Chinese and Thai restaurants might have something to say about that.

Not all Democrats were on board: Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said a ban would be a “recipe for disaster”. “The federal government has no business telling American families how to cook their dinner,” he said.

Florida’s Governor, rising Republican star Ron DeSantis, reassured Floridians Washington wouldn’t be taking away their gas stoves, which are used by about 35 per cent of the state’s population. “That’s your choice,” he exclaimed to cheers from a group of supporters.

In short, gas stoves have become right-wing, and there’s no going back.

One of America’s top economists, Jason Furman, chairman of the council of economic advisers under former president Barack Obama, respected on both sides of the political divide, has prudently bought a stove with both electric and gas stove tops.

It’s been a bracing transition for everyone. Until a few weeks ago gas was the pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050, the only fossil fuel permitted to be discussed in polite society. Senior Democrats, including Jill Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris and “Squad” leader congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have posed for pictures with their gas stoves.

Now, suddenly, to be “cookin’ with gas” isn’t something to aim for, but rather a risk to life and planet.

Dr Jill Biden cooks with gas too. Picture: Twitter

It’s a particular disaster for California, the nation’s richest and largest state, where 70 per cent of households use gas to cook.

Perhaps “Building the Cooking Revolution, free induction stove tops for all”, should be the policy to launch the state’s ambitious Democrat Governor, Gavin Newsom, on to the national stage.

And pity the real estate agents who for years have been spruiking gas stove stops as a “chef’s delight” now having to explain away the home appliance version of a big MAGA hat in the kitchen.

“Your Gas Stove May Be Killing You. How Much Should You Worry?” The New York Times asked its distressed readers last week. The answer is probably not very much.

The new academic paper that caused all the fuss claimed 13 per cent of childhood asthma in the US could be prevented if gas stoves were removed entirely.

But it wasn’t an original study, rather a “meta study” that averaged out the findings of many other studies.

American economist Emily Oster pored over the studies behind the headline figure and concluded a link between gas cooking and asthma was “likely to be small”, if it existed at all.

“We do not see the kind of smoking gun in any of these data that would suggest a really consistent link,” she concluded last week.

Indeed, Pennsylvania has a relatively higher incidence of childhood asthma yet relatively low gas stove penetration, in contrast with New York, which has less asthma and more gas stoves.

Whatever the effect, it’s hardly decisive.

Of course, the far more pressing health issue, in a nation where at least one fifth of American children are obese, is what’s being cooked – or not cooked – on everyone’s stoves.

Call me cynical but I suspect the link to asthma in children might be a political front for the real reason: climate change, which wouldn’t be as politically saleable a justification for ripping out everyone’s stoves or even banning their sale.

Two of the of the study’s four authors (half of whom were Sydney-based, interestingly) are linked to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a climate change think tank in Colorado.

Gas stoves emit methane, which is dozens of times worse than carbon dioxide in terms of contributing to warming the planet.

But even then, the total impact of American gas stoves on emissions is about 500,000 cars annually, according to a 2022 study in the Journal of Environmental Science & Technology, which only sounds a lot until you realise the US has more than 280 million cars.

The backlash was so furious the President, via his press secretary, had to deny he supported banning gas stoves.

CPSC chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric was compelled to rule out any plan of the CPSC to proceed with a ban.

But don’t expect the push to phase out gas stoves to go away. Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the meatiest piece of legislation the Democrats passed last year, included a $US840 rebate to replace gas stoves with induction or electric stove tops.

If enough Americans don’t take it up, expect gas stoves to go the way of petrol-powered cars, which have already been prospectively banned in some states.