A newly formed non-profit is bringing the spirit of “don’t tread on me” to the kitchen, taking a stand against an ongoing campaign to ban gas-powered stoves.
Hands Off My Stove is sponsored by the U.S. Oil and Gas Association and was created as a response to government proposals at the local, state, and federal level to restrict what stoves Americans can use in their homes to prepare their meals.
“People are really upset about this because the kitchen is the center of everyone’s home — it’s where we raise our families and where we teach our kid and people see this as environmentalists kicking in their door and tattling on them to the government,” Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, told Fox News Digital. “They feel like it is a gross invasion of their privacy and their personal space, and they want someone to tell them how to fight back. This is about choice and freedom, and it is about privacy.”
The push to regulate and ultimately eliminate natural gas-powered stoves gained national attention in January, when a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a government agency, said a ban on gas stoves was “on the table” because of the health risks they pose to consumers. However, the CPSC backed down after public outrage and ridicule.
Soon thereafter, the Energy Department proposed an energy-efficiency regulation that officials acknowledge is so stringent that less than 50% of the gas stoves currently in use today would make the cut.
The Energy Department “proposes efficiency standards all the time — for lightbulbs, washers and dryers, refrigerators, and more,” a department spokesperson recently told Fox News Digital. “Does it mean they’re coming to ban those appliances? Of course not. Instead, the department is building on decades-long efforts with industry to ensure our appliances work more efficiently and save Americans money.”
The department has also proposed a rule called the “Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Conventional Cooking Products.”
According to Hands Off My Stove’s website, however, gas stoves are both cost effective and environmentally friendly — and proposals to ban them infringe on individual rights.
