By now, we’ve grown used to the government banning things if they are politically unpopular or run contrary to The Narrative. (You know… things like free speech or firearms.) But this one really feels like it just came out of the blue. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is opening a period of public comments on the “dangers of gas stoves.” We’ll get to the supposed dangers in a moment, but if a regulatory agency like the USCPSC is already to the point of taking public comments, one of two things is almost certainly on the way. They will either impose emission limits on the stoves, no doubt driving up the cost and/or reducing efficiency, or they will ban the stoves altogether. Either way, somebody is about to make a boatload of money, and it won’t be the consumers. (National Review)

A federal agency may look to ban gas stoves over concern about the release of pollutants that can cause health and respiratory problems, according to a new report.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is set to open public comment on the dangers of gas stoves sometime this winter. The commission could set standards on emissions from the gas stoves, or even look to ban the manufacture or import of the appliances, commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. told Bloomberg News.

“This is a hidden hazard,” Trumka told the outlet. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

The claim here is that gas stoves “emit pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter.” Those alleged emissions are above levels deemed safe by the EPA and the WHO. But if this report sounds suspicious to you, you’re not alone. First of all, gas stoves have been around since the early 1800s and they have been ubiquitous in America for longer than anyone can remember. The EPA has been in business for more than 50 years. The WHO was set up in the 1940s. And you’re just figuring this out now?

Obviously, not everyone agrees with this proposal. It appears to be based on one study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The American Gas Association cited guidelines from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the EPA, neither of which find gas stoves to be a significant contributor to adverse air quality or to pose a health hazard.

Turning this into more of a clown show, Cory Booker jumped into the debate. He claimed that gas stoves pose a “cumulative burden on black, Latino and low-income households.” Because of course he did. Here’s a hot tip for Senator Booker. White people use gas stoves too. Everyone does.

Since we’ve long since learned how these swamp creatures operate, we shouldn’t just take this pronouncement at face value. Might there be some other reason they would suddenly want to do away with gas stoves? Two possibilities come to mind for me immediately. The first is that gas stoves run on natural gas. That’s a fossil fuel, so the green caucus wants to do away with them in the name of the Climate Church to reduce demand. (Nevermind for the moment that electric stoves need electricity to operate, the majority of which is produced using fossil fuels. I know… details.)

But there’s another possibility that we should have learned from watching all of the green energy, wind or solar power mandates unfold. As noted in the National Review article linked above, roughly 40% of households in America have gas stoves. So do a large portion of restaurants. If they all have to suddenly replace them with either electric stoves or redesigned gas stoves with more expensive emission control systems, there will be a rapid result that I alluded to at the top of the article. Somebody is about to make a lot of money. And just as we saw Al Gore and all of his friends investing heavily in wind and solar companies before the government began handing out massive subsidies to those industries, the same thing can happen again with this.

Does it sound like I’m writing this article with my tinfoil hat on? If that’s your take, I would suggest that you haven’t been watching the weasels in Washington closely enough.