Official Appointed by Biden Wanted to Ban Gas Stoves: Memo

Flames burn on a gas stove in Chicago, Ill., on Jan. 12, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

A federal official appointed by President Joe Biden wanted to ban gas stoves, according to a leaked memorandum.

“There is sufficient information available for CPSC to issue [a notice of proposed rulemaking] in [fiscal year] 2023 proposing to ban gas stoves in homes,” Richard Trumka Jr., a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner, wrote in the Oct. 25, 2022, memo.

The memo was obtained by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and reviewed by The Epoch Times.

Trumka triggered a media firestorm in January after saying that all options regarding gas stoves were on the table.

“My guiding duty is protecting consumer health and safety. Gas stoves can emit dangerous level of toxic chemicals—even when not in use—and CPSC will consider all approaches to regulation,” Trumka said at the time.

U.S. lawmakers have criticized the floating of a ban, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Others have urged the CPSC to impose new regulations on gas stoves.

Other officials quickly walked back Trumka’s comments.

“I am not looking to ban gas stoves and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so,” CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric stated. The White House also said President Joe Biden wouldn’t back a gas stove ban and that the CPSC “is not banning gas stoves.”

Fact-checking articles from the Associated Press, The New York Times, and other agencies claimed that the administration wasn’t going to or trying to ban stoves, claims that were contradicted by the leaked memo.

Trumka wrote in the document, addressed to fellow commissioner Peter Feldman, that the need for gas stove regulation “has reached a boiling point” as “emerging evidence” showed that “gas stoves in homes emit toxic gases that cause illnesses and that lower-cost, safer alternatives are available.” He cited a paper from the New York University School of Law, which pointed to papers that have found high nitrogen dioxide levels in homes with gas stoves and advocated for CPSC to “address the risks of indoor air pollution from gas stoves.”