Contrary to White House backpedaling, documents now reveal what many Americans suspected: Joe Biden and his Constitution-defying Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) were seriously making plans to forbid sales of new natural gas cooking stoves.
Which not only represents more evidence of the disingenuous behavior and aggressive agenda of elitist D.C. edict-pushers, it arrives with uncanny timing, coming shortly after Florida Governor DeSantis (R) announced his support for the permanent elimination of sales taxes for gas stoves and appliances.
And, of course, in reporting on it, Market Watch’s Rachel Koning Beals employed the typical “coloring to prejudice” tactic so often used by biased “journalists” in order to hint that DeSantis’ move is a cynical political ploy.
“Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a likely 2024 candidate for president, delivered on an earlier promise Wednesday when he said new gas stoves — in fact, all gas appliances — should be exempt from his state’s sales tax.”
The speculation about DeSantis’ political future is merely that – speculation – and it has no place in the story, especially in the first paragraph of a “news report.”
The scant factual information one might find in Ms. Beals’ report came when she wrote:
“DeSantis rolled out the first budget of his second term, and among the proposed breaks for taxpayers is a $7 million permanent exemption on appliances fueled by combustible gas, such as natural gas propane, butane, liquefied petroleum gas and syngas.”
And then, Beals proceeds to fire off a series of uncited Climate Apocalypse myths and insinuations about natural gas that repeatedly have been proven unfounded, ranging (pun intended) from the very notion that the Earth’s temperature is being driven to catastrophe by mankind, to the idea that natural gas is part of the fabricated “emergency,” to the bogus notion that natural gas stoves are hazardous to personal health inside a home.
“The move comes as the debate over gas stoves has heated up in recent weeks. In an interview with Bloomberg in early January, an official from the Consumer Product Safety Commission talked about the possibility of a ban on the sale of gas stoves, which some studies have found produce emissions that contribute to climate change and also pose health risks inside the home.”
Addressing the latter, Breanne Deppisch, Energy and Environment reporter for The Washington Examiner, exposes the slipshod nature of the main “study” upon which the Biden Administration founded its aborted attack, and she went further, digging into more of this so-called “science.”
“Brown University economist Emily Oster looked through the studies and concluded that they had some noisy and inconsistent results. For example, one study, based on Russian data, found that the risk of asthma is doubled in homes with gas cooking — but also that there is no evidence that gas stoves increase symptoms associated with asthma.”
One of the major problems for the Climate Cult is the fact that they cannot control for other factors that can contribute to breathing problems, but that doesn’t stop them – and “reporters” such as Beals.
Related: PA Gov. Wolf Backs Cities Who Force Residents Off Natural Gas | MRCTV
On the larger issue of the CPSC engaging in its propaganda campaign prior to setting out to ban the stoves, Reason Magazine’s Steven Greenhut reminds readers of the typical “messaging” displayed by mendacious collectivists occupying many of the halls of government.
“New York City in 2021 passed a ban on new natural-gas stoves (and other gas-fired appliances) in new buildings. It applies to those under seven stories next year and to taller buildings in four years.”
Of course, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) recently was exposed for her authoritarian disregard of both the state and U.S. constitutions – neither document “grants” her power to simply “ban” gas stoves – and for her hypocrisy, reflected in the fact that she eats food cooked on… a gas stove.
Greenhut adds:
“In 2019, Berkeley was the first U.S. city to impose a similar ban on new construction.
This year, Los Angeles became the largest city in the United States to implement a gas ban. ‘Over 60 cities and counties across the state are considering policies to support all-electric new construction,’ the Sierra Club reported (gleefully) in 2021. It's no surprise federal bureaucrats are getting in on the action.”
No, it is not surprising. But it is angering – to see the unfounded opportunism, scaremongering, and immoral, unconstitutional authoritarianism. Haven’t people had enough, after all the crushing prohibitions and edicts politicians drove onto us during the so-called “pandemic”?
Writes Greenhut:
“This is how the game works. It is an orchestrated effort driven by climate concerns. Environmentalists want to move toward a renewable electric grid and away from fossil fuels. Natural gas is a fossil fuel. ‘Natural gas bans are new front in effort to curb emissions,’ touted one news headline. What better way to build support for that policy than scare people about the dangers of gas cooking?”
This fight is not over.
And, yes, perhaps DeSantis is levering it in the opposite direction in order to play politics. It’s Economics 101 that politicians treat people like horses, using tax policy to produce “mass behavior” through the carrots of tax breaks or the sticks of tax penalties. Many people look with jaded eyes at any “tax policy” antics, even as they appreciate any tax cut that might leave people to hold onto more of their own cash.
But the stark difference is clear. It’s a cosmic contrast between a politician who might try to lower the tax burden on people -- even as he questions the arguments and claims of central-government authoritarians -- and those people who would claim control over innocent American consumers and sellers who just want to live their lives in peace.