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Saturday, October 5, 2024 - 02:28 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Get Government Out of my Kitchen

After the uproar over a potential ban on gas stoves, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a clarifying announcement that no, they do not plan to ban gas stoves, but they do want voluntary compliance. Already, several communities in California and New York have banned natural gas hookups in new construction, which means no gas stoves – and no gas furnaces or water heaters, either.

Do you think that government bureaucrats are looking out for our best interest or do they just want to control our lifestyle and economic choices? The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act includes $840 rebates for households that switch from gas to electric, so bureaucrats have already decided that electric is better than gas.

More than 35 percent of American homes use gas stoves. Natural gas is usually less expensive than electricity and the U.S. has plenty of natural gas since we are a net-exporter of natural gas. Since we have plenty of fuel, why would the CPSC want us to change to a more expensive commodity? Two reasons:

  1. The climate change alarmists want everything electric, which they hope will be produced by wind and sun. Yet, wind and sun cannot meet the electric needs today and will certainly not meet the electric needs tomorrow when automobiles and stoves are forced into electricity.

  2. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) claims that gas stove pollutants disproportionately affect minority and low-income populations. So, switching to electric stoves is really about "equity". A brand-new electric stove for everyone! 

Any required shift to electric stoves will burden as our electric grid is already maxed out and Americans will experience more "brown-outs" due to electric shortages. There are very large costs for switching the source of electric power generation to wind and solar. Wind and solar require a lot of land and our valuable farmland will be destroyed by these enormous "farms" that have only a 20-year lifespan. Plus, the windmills and solar arrays are not biodegradable at the end of their usefulness, but the farmland has been destroyed.

There is another burden on the home if stoves are switched from gas to electric: electric stoves require specific cookware. The pots and pans you already own will not perform on the new electric burners. You will have to purchase new cookware for your new stove.

One of the CPSC commissioners, Richard Trumka, Jr, said, "Products that can't be safe can be banned." No product can ever be guaranteed safe. I wish Trumka would worry more about those who attempt to pollute our children's minds than the energy that comes out of the clean and efficient gas stoves.