Do you want to keep your gas stove? New law would require Democrats to ‘keep their hands off’ kitchen appliances as they pursue Biden’s green agenda
Republicans are waging war against the Biden administration’s push to ban gas stoves and restrict home appliances, telling Democrats to “keep their hands off.”
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives passed the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act, 212 – 195, largely split along party lines. It’s one of several device-related bills the GOP has planned for this Congress.
The passage of the bill is a direct rebuke to the Biden administration’s attempt to restrict gas stoves and other appliances in homes across America, as well as other green initiatives.
Specifically, the proposed bill, which will be sent to the Senate, amends existing policy to reform the Department of Energy’s (DOE) procedures for promulgating energy efficiency standards.
Of the many reforms the bill makes, the most notable is the rollback of the Secretary of Energy’s ability to ban fuel-based products, which essentially bans natural gas products like stoves.
The bill aims to limit the Secretary of Energy’s ability to ban or restrict appliances based on the type of fuel they use to operate, such as natural gas stoves.
Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., introduced the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act in November
The bill also requires the DOE to consider costs to low-income households when setting new energy standards and to eliminate unnecessary regulatory requirements.
It would also set minimum thresholds for energy and water conservation standards before imposing these new requirements.
“I’m saddened that we even need a bill like this,” Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., who introduced the measure, said Tuesday morning at a news conference touting the legislation.
“However, as we have experienced under this administration, the Department of Energy has unleashed an avalanche of new regulations on household products, including stoves, dishwashers, washing machines, showers, toilets, water heaters, air conditioners, heat pumps and furnaces.”
“No government bureaucrat should ever plan to take away American appliances in the name of a radical environmental agenda,” Lesko continued.
“Yet that is exactly what we have seen under the Biden administration.”
The Arizona Republican previously led the charge in the House of Representatives in defense of the Save Our Gas Stoves Act, which passed the House in June 2023.
The stove legislation has not been debated in the Senate since then and remains under the purview of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Lesko said at the time that Biden’s policy would have banned almost all gas stoves in the US.
“According to the Department of Energy’s own technical report, 96 percent of the gas stove market share will not comply with the DOE’s new proposed rule,” she said. “That’s a 96 percent ban.”
The DOE finalized new rules for energy standards for washers and dryers in February
Rep. Debbie Lesko speaks to House GOP leadership during a press conference, praising her ‘Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act’
The Biden administration’s DOE has made many rule changes in recent years regarding everyday home appliances like stoves, washing machines, water heaters and more in terms of emissions.
They have upset consumer advocacy groups who say the restrictions will drive up costs and users who don’t want to part with their beloved tools.
“The pettiness of micromanaging consumer choices would be comical if it weren’t so destructive to Americans’ quality of life,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, told DailyMail.com about Biden’s device initiatives .
“Biden’s overreaching regulations on appliances have made the necessities even more expensive in an economy where inflation is already destroying consumer purchasing power.”
“Rather than protecting the environment, these rules only serve to line the pockets of ESG elites who profit from the sale of these so-called green devices.”
And Republicans have a laundry list of other device-related actions in the pipeline.
The House Republican Party is also considering the Liberty in Laundry Act, the Clothes Dryers Reliability Act, the Refrigerator Freedom Act, the Affordable Air Conditioning Act, and the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act.
It is unclear when the remaining device bills will be put to a vote, but this is expected soon.