Manchin joins Lankford in pressuring regulator to back off gas stove inquiry
Breanne Deppisch
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Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) pressured the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Thursday to back off any efforts to regulate gas stoves, asking him to abandon a Request for Information process approved by the agency last fall.
The two senators cited “deep concerns” about the recent remarks from Richard Trumka Jr., the CPSC commissioner who sparked political uproar last month after suggesting in an interview that the agency was weighing a ban on gas stoves due to health hazards.
Constituents “are now suddenly, and rightfully, concerned about the future of gas stoves,” the two wrote in a letter to CPSC Commissioner Alexander Hoehn-Saric shared exclusively with the Washington Examiner.
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Manchin and Lankford also called on Hoehn-Saric to scrap the commission’s October 2022 amendment allowing the agency to begin a Request For Information (RFI) to seek public input on “hazards associated with gas stoves and propose solutions to those hazards.”
“We understand the Commission’s mission is to ensure consumer safety. However, it is unclear what safety angle the Commission plans to take with the recent RFI,” the lawmakers said, noting that gas stoves are used in roughly 35%, or nearly 40 million, households nationwide.
“If this directive is still under consideration, please provide what event, peer reviewed research,or sudden new hazard has prompted this RFI since gas stoves have been in use for more than a century and studied for potential health hazards in the past,” they said.
Their letter comes just hours after Manchin announced that he is joining forces up with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to introduce bipartisan legislation to prohibit the Consumer Product Safety Commission from banning gas stoves.
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The legislation, known as the Gas Stove Protection and Freedom Act, would prevent the commission from using federal funds to ban any new or existing gas stoves, according to a copy of the bill from NBC News.