Free Republic

CHICAGO — The debate over the future of gas stoves in Chicago has been heating up in recent months. Under one proposal, called the “Clean and Affordable Buildings Ordinance,” the City Council could ultimately ban gas stoves in all new construction projects. Chicago is not the only government agency looking at ways to limit gas emissions. Last year, New York became the first state to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new buildings. Prominent Chicago Chef Rick Bayless made the transition in his restaurants years ago. “We wanted to make everything as environmentally friendly as possible,” said Bayless,...

A federal appeals court rejected a petition Tuesday to rehear a case related to a natural gas ban proposed by the City of Berkeley, California, which the panel ruled was illegal last year. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ultimately denied Berkeley's petition for rehearing en banc — a motion that received support from the Biden administration, Democratic-led states and environmentalists — after it failed to receive majority support from the court's non-recused active judges. Berkeley filed the motion last year after the court in April that a Berkeley law banning natural gas pipes in new construction...

Vice President Kamala Harris generated outrage and ridicule for posting to X/Twitter a photo with her husband featuring what appears to be a gas stove as the Biden administration and Democrats across the nation seek a ban on the popular appliance. Harris’s post simply reads, “From our family to yours, happy Thanksgiving.” Only one dish – which had not been touched – is visible in the seemingly staged photo, but it was the gas range that garnered online attention after the Biden administration has reportedly sought to ban their usage.

A group of gas and construction trade groups filed a federal lawsuit Thursday challenging the legality of New York’s ban on gas stoves and furnaces in new residential buildings in a move to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's push for green energy. The case was filed by the National Association of Home Builders and the National Propane Gas Association, among others and names the New York Department of State as a defendant on the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that New York does not have the legal ability to enforce the gas stove ban because a preexisting federal law, called the...

The Biden administration quietly revised its data analysis of gas stove regulations it proposed earlier this year, showing they would produce fewer consumer savings than previously projected. The Department of Energy (DOE) filed a notification of data availability as part of its ongoing gas stove rulemaking this week, showing that Americans will save 30% less than it said they would under the regulations when they were first proposed in February. The agency's new analysis showed consumers are now expected to save just 9 cents per month under the gas stove regulations. "The newly released DOE analysis revises downward the potential...

The Biden administration is cracking down on water heaters by imposing greater efficiency standards. Consumers will have to shovel out thousands of dollars more to install a heat pump water heater rather than a conventional storage water heater in order to fall in line with new standards released on Friday by the Department of Energy. If the proposal is adopted, by 2029, all new electric water heaters must deploy heat pump technology and all gas-fired ones will use condensing technology.

The Biden administration's efforts to turn up the regulatory heat on gas stoves are drawing bipartisan opposition from a pair of senators who have introduced a bill to block a ban on gas stoves. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., introduced the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act last week amid the Biden administration's discussions of proposed restrictions on gas stoves. Their bill would prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) from advancing regulations on existing or new gas stoves that would ban their use or "would otherwise substantially increase the...

Democratic leaders in major cities nationwide have already moved forward with bans on natural gas stoves even as the Biden administration has pumped the brakes on similar regulations at the federal level. Cities including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and New York City — which are collectively home to more than 10 million Americans — have enacted varying restrictions on natural gas hookups impacting gas-powered furnaces, ovens and stoves. Leaders of the Democrat-led cities have argued that transitioning away from natural gas would help achieve climate and net-zero ambitions. "New York City is proof that it’s possible to...

An old photo of first lady Jill Biden cooking with a gas stove has gone viral this week as the Biden administration is weighing the ban of such appliances, according to a report. "Hey [Antoni Porowski], what are you cooking tonight?" Biden wrote on Twitter in September 2020, including the photo of herself using a gas stove top to cook and directing the question toward Canadian chef and TV personality Antoni Porowski. The photo resurfaced just days after Bloomberg first reported that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is considering a ban on gas stoves because of concerns about...

A federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves, a source of indoor pollution linked to childhood asthma. In an interview with Bloomberg, a US Consumer Product Safety commissioner said gas stove usage is a “hidden hazard.”“Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” agency commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg. The report said the agency plans “to take action” to address the indoor pollution caused by stoves.

Kenya’s Charlot Magali, who is the founder of Mukuru clean cooking stove was awarded $1.2 million Earth shot Prize by British Prince William.Mukuru Clean Stoves aims to bring cleaner-burning stoves to women in Kenya and Africa as a whole. According to studies, more than 950 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone rely on heavily polluting wood and charcoal for cooking. This number is estimated to grow to 1.67 billion by 2050. Charlot Magayi, 29, began the project in 2017 at Mukuru kwa Njenga slum, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, Kenya.

Tanuj Deora works in the energy industry - specifically to decarbonize energy systems. That's the technical term for efforts to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. It's a vast and complex problem, but Deora and his family try to do their part. At their home in Northwest Washington, they have solar panels, LED lightbulbs and a hybrid minivan. In the kitchen, though, the issue of fossil fuel usage was more personal. Their natural gas cooktop was making Deora sick. "I would get a headache whenever the gas was running," he says, so he started looking into replacing their gas stove....

No way in hell you are going to put a wok on an electric stove.”That was Steven Lee, a San Francisco official and restaurant investor, as quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle last year after the city’s Board of Supervisors voted to outlaw natural gas in new buildings.Nevertheless, they persisted. Per the Sierra Club, the quickening campaign to phase out natural gas recently notched its 50th city-level win in California alone. (Take a bow, Encinitas!) No. 50, as with some others, has “situational exemptions” for restaurants and the like, but the overall push to compel an all-electric design for homes...

We're looking for a new 30" range for the kitchen. Needs to run on propane. While we are on-grid, we're looking for ranges made for off-grid for the simplicity and reliability. We're in a rural area and sometimes the road is inaccessible. Our last stove spent the last 18 months not working more often than working. Two "safety" valves, a control board, a temperature sensor, three glow ignitors. Was under warranty, but we couldn't get anyone to come down the road and look at it. So we're looking for either pilot lights or battery-powered spark ignition. The former isn't manufactured...

NEW YORK, NY — A child playing with a stove started a massive fire that killed a dozen people in the Bronx Thursday night, officials said Friday morning.

I have a buddy in rural Illinois who is living with and helping out his elderly mom, and he likes to cook. He cooks up a storm. They both enjoy the food. The house they are in has begun to display a very bad bedbug infestation. Both my buddy's mom and my buddy are freaking out. They don't have a lot of money but they are about to call Orkin. I stopped to think about the science of bedbugs. Both my buddy and I did a lot of online research after discovering the infestation. But I think I have a...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Wood-burning heaters -- including modern pollution-fighting wood stoves -- will not be permitted in new homes built in the Bay Area starting next fall, as part of a first-in-the-nation ban approved by air quality regulators Wednesday. The new rules, approved unanimously by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, will also require every seller of an existing home with a wood-burning fireplace to give buyers a disclosure statement warning of the health risks of wood smoke. Even wood stoves certified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as low emission would not be allowed in new homes whose...

The EPA's much-anticipated wood stove regulations are proposed to go into effect throughout the country in 2015, requiring newly manufactured stoves to cut maximum emissions by more than a third. Those standards would tighten dramatically in 2019 [80 percent in five years]. Wood stoves that already are installed or are for sale are not affected by the regulations, a Friday press release from the EPA stated. Only a handful of the stoves on the EPA's certified stove list would meet those standards in 2019. However, the EPA focused primarily on the savings to health costs and money spent on wood...

Just bought a new old woodstove for my ground floor. A Vermont Castings big one. Have a Big Jotul on the first floor. Planning on burning two and a half to three cord this year. Have an extra cord for margin. So, what kind a wood stove do you use?

Just bought a new old woodstove for my ground floor. A Vermont Castings big one. Have a Big Jotul on the first floor. Planning on burning two and a half to three cord this year. Have an extra cord for margin. So, what kind a wood stove do you use?