The Biden administration locked in a gas stove rule on Monday after insisting that it is not trying to ban gas stoves, rejecting efforts by opposed organizations to nix the rule.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) efficiency rule for gas stoves, announced in January, will come into effect as expected in January 2028, according to a Monday entry in the Federal Register. The finalized rule is less stringent than a 2023 proposal that was subsequently abandoned, and nuance in the rulemaking process allowed for the agency to walk back parts of the regulation if it received a significant volume of negative public comments on the docket, according to E&E News, but the DOE has gone ahead with its rule over the objections of several Republican state attorneys general and advocacy groups, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
The DOE rolled out the rule as a “direct final rulemaking,” meaning that there was no published proposal for the policy, according to E&E News. The “direct final rulemaking” process also allowed for groups like CEI to leave comments about the rule with a chance of getting the agency to water down the rule.
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“The Federal Register simply published a confirmation notice – which is a procedural step in our process for direct final rules,” a DOE spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We are simply following our statutory directed process for a direct final standards rule pertaining to cooking,” the spokesperson continued, adding that “the final rules mirror the joint recommendation received from a wide variety of stakeholders, including the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, Consumer Federation of America, and energy efficiency advocates.”
In its comments, CEI argued that the newer, less aggressive regulation was indeed watered down from the 2023 proposal, but that it nevertheless should be withdrawn because it represents federal overreach and remained a policy that would increase costs for American consumers, according to E&E News and the Federal Register entry. Besides CEI and some Republican attorneys general, the Antonin Scalia Law School Administrative Law Clinic and other groups also commented against the DOE’s rule.
The DOE has asserted that the suggestion the government wants to ban gas stoves is a “myth” and “misinformation.” Notably, Biden administration officials submitted an amicus brief asking a federal court to reverse a decision that nixed Berkeley, California’s 2019 ban on gas hookups in new buildings, a policy that ostensibly would have outlawed the installation of gas stoves in newly-constructed buildings.
“President Biden is committed to using all the tools at the administration’s disposal to lower costs for American families and deliver healthier communities—including energy efficiency measures like the one announced today,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said of the rulemaking when it was released in late January.
The DOE’s regulation applies to electric cooktops, gas cooktops, stand-alone electric cooktops, stand-alone gas cooktops and ovens. The rule will likely drive up the costs of particular models up front, but the Biden administration asserts that the policy will save Americans money on their bills over time by reducing the volume of energy household stoves use, according to The Washington Post.
“The new standards will also require only a small portion of models to make modest improvements to their energy efficiency to match the level of efficiency already demonstrated by the majority of the market today,” the agency said in its January press release announcing the rule. “For example, approximately 97 percent of gas stove models and 77 percent of smooth electric stove models on the market already meet these standards.”
Nearly 70% of respondents opposed policies that would essentially ban gas stoves, according to a June 2023 Harvard CAPS Harris poll. More than 80% of Republican respondents and 71% of independents were opposed to policies that would induce a gas stove ban, as were 55% of surveyed Democrats.
Beyond stoves, the DOE has also pushed energy efficiency rules for everyday items like water heaters, furnaces and pool pump motors. The Biden administration has also spent hundreds of millions of dollars to assist state and municipal governments in developing building codes intended to “decarbonize” buildings.
(Featured image credit: Screen Capture/PBS NewsHour)
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