President-elect Donald Trump is considering an executive order to safeguard gas stoves and heaters, which the Biden Administration has targeted for regulation under its progressive climate agenda. Sources close to Trump’s transition team reveal that the incoming president is exploring a move to restrict federal funding for state or local efforts to ban or increase the costs of gas appliances. In a press conference on Tuesday, Trump criticized the Biden Administration, accusing it of attempting to ban gas stoves and heaters from residential homes and apartments.
“The heat is much better,” Trump said, referring to gas-powered appliances. “It’s a much better heat. As the expression goes, you don’t itch.”
Trump also argued that gas-powered heaters are "plentiful" and significantly cheaper to operate than electric alternatives. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, roughly 75 million American households relied on natural gas for at least one appliance in 2020. Of those, around 47 million households used gas for cooking, up from 39 million in 2015.
Several Democratic leaders have pushed to ban natural gas-powered stoves in newly constructed homes. New York became the first state to do so in 2021, and the ban is expected to take effect before 2026. Berkeley, California, implemented a ban on natural gas hookups for new buildings, a measure that other cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, have since adopted.
In 2023, the Biden Department of Energy released unprecedented draft efficiency standards for gas-powered stoves, which would have caused up to half of the models on the market to fall short. The administration allocated millions of dollars to assist state and local governments in gradually developing building codes that effectively served as covert attempts to eliminate gas-powered appliances. Although the Biden Administration maintained that the proposal wouldn't amount to an outright ban on the appliance, Republicans lamented it as an excessive overreach. However, by January 2024, the department had substantially revised the regulations, affecting only three percent of gas stove models and 23 percent of electric stoves on the market.
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In January 2023, I reported on comments made by U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., who claimed gas stoves are "a hidden hazard.”
"Any option is on the table," Trumka said of the Biden Administration. He threatened that "Products that can't be made safe can be banned."
The idea was quickly abandoned. However, the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed imposing new energy efficiency standards for gas stoves.
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