The American Gas Association (AGA) is clapping back after news that U.S. federal regulators may ban gas stoves over their potential risks to human health stating the removal of the appliance is “reckless” and a “misguided agenda.”
The conflict between federal agencies and the gas industry came to a head as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) have said gas stoves are unsafe and linked to respiratory illness like asthma, cardiovascular problems, cancer, and other health conditions, according to reports by groups such as the Institute for Policy Integrity and the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
“A December 2022 report in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health linking natural gas cooking with asthma is not substantiated by sound science.” the AGA said in a press release Tuesday.
On Monday, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to act on the appliances because the pollutants can cause respiratory and health issues.
“Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg.
The report said the federal agency plans “to take action” to address the indoor pollution caused by stoves.
The AGA has previously pushed back against Trumka’s comments, saying that the emissions from cooking with gas are similar to emissions created when cooking with electric stoves and that they plan on submitting evidence to prove it.
“Any discussion or perpetuation of the allegations in this report which is funded by non-governmental organizations to advance their agenda to remove consumer energy choice and the option of natural gas is reckless.” the AGA added.
On Tuesday, the agency slammed Trumka’s comments, calling the finding “baseless allegations” and pointing how gas reduced carbon emissions from the power sector by pushing out more-polluting coal.
“Any efforts to ban highly efficient natural gas stoves should raise alarm bells for the 187 million Americans who depend on this essential fuel every day,” the AGA said.
In December 2022, a group of federal lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-VT, wrote a letter to the CPSC expressing their concerns “regarding the risks posed to consumers from indoor air pollution generated by gas stoves.”
The group pointed out that more than 40 million homes in the U.S. rely on gas stoves for cooking, and “methane leaks from gas stoves inside U.S. homes were recently found to contribute the equivalent climate impacts as about 500,000 gasoline-powered cars.”
They added that the cumulative effect of such emissions has a disproportionate impact on Black, Latino, and low-income households.