Government is back in our kitchen legislating the latest fashion in politically correct energy that we may use to prepare our meals and feed our families.
The range war over gas or electric cooking appliances fired a shot in the Colorado House this week with the passage of a Democrat bill that mandates home warranty contracts come with stove replacement offers, which the homeowner must pay for.
House Bill 1134 mandates that homeowners be offered the option to replace gas stoves powered by natural gas, with electric stoves powered by electricity that comes from coal, natural gas, and renewables.
The bill passed on a party line vote of 45-19, with support from Xcel Energy.
The intent of our progressive Democrat overlords is to improve the air quality inside our homes, already polluted with atomic dust bunnies, dirty laundry, smelly shoes, microwave popcorn, dogs or cats, burnt toast, the overflowing beer can recycle bin, and someone vaping in the bathroom.
But it’s the gas stove that’s polluting our indoor air, they would have us believe.
And how do they know gas stoves are a danger to our health?
Because the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute that works with the Communist Chinese government is making the questionable claim that gas stoves cause asthma.
The group released a nine-paragraph “study” in December that initially panicked the Biden administration into threats of gas stove bans. Calls which subsided after widespread criticism, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
Structuring a study that way is questionable, according to Yale University professor of medicine Dr. Harvey Risch. Moreover, the conclusions of the institute’s study differs from what the organization is saying publicly.
“This paper does not do any research on possible association between residential natural gas use and risk of childhood asthma,” Risch told the Free Beacon. “It only calculates a percent of childhood asthma that could be attributable to residential natural gas use and risk of childhood asthma.”
That distinction is important, Risch said, particularly when calling for such a dramatic public policy proposal that would change how tens of millions of Americans prepare their food. The study was also ethically dubious, according to Risch, as its authors stated they held no conflicts of interest despite working for climate change activist groups. The Rocky Mountain Institute’s board, for example, is filled with executives at green energy corporations with a financial interest in banning the use of fossil fuels.
RMI maintains an office in Beijing, and their work with China’s National Development and Reform Commission went sideways to replace existing appliances when climate goals weren’t met, and electricity rations resulted in “dimmed traffic lights that cause chaos” and “half-cooked rice in rice cookers,” the Free Beacon reported.
But we digress.
By ordering home warranty companies to offer stove replacements from gas to electric, which the homeowner would have to pay extra for, Colorado’s Democrat lawmakers can rest easy knowing they helped spike our utility costs even higher with negligible health benefits.