DeSantis, gas stoves and the culture wars.
It has been a relatively mild Chicago winter.
Still, it’s early and we have several months of winter to go.
Tomorrow we are out of here for a few weeks to a rental on the Gulf coast of Florida.
Checking the internet I find that the big political issue right now in Florida is about gas stoves.
Governor Ron DeSantis is for them, claiming attempts to limit them is akin to bolshevism.
Remember when Charlton Heston was President of the National Rifle Association and he famously said, "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands"?
It appears DeSantis, who is eyeing a run for the MAGA Party nomination for president, is repeating Heston’s pledge, but this time it’s about gas stoves.
“When we say don’t tread on Florida or let us alone, we mean that, including on your gas stoves! You’re not taking our gas stoves away from us. That’s your choice! I know many people who cook a lot who do not want to part with their gas stoves,” said the Florida governor.
Gov. DeSantis has turned up the heat on the matter during a press conference after initial reports on the issue broke.
It followed comments from Richard Trumka Jr., a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner, who warned of the real danger of gas stoves, water heaters and home furnaces.
The problem with gas appliances is not really news.
A study from a decade ago suggests a gas stove in the house increased the child’s risk of asthma by 42 percent.
Another study released in December drew a more direct link between the nitrogen dioxide emitted by gas stoves and 13 percent of childhood asthma cases.
“Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” said Trumka.
But DeSantis is always on the lookout for grist for the culture wars.
Being against masks and vaccination is starting to wear thin.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has since said Trumka’s comments were his own and did not signal a change in U.S. policy. And even Trumka stated that he was only referring to potential new sales, and was not suggesting outlawing existing gas stoves.
By the way, I checked. Only 35% of folks in the U.S. use gas stoves. The highest numbers are in California, Illinois and New York.
Not surprisingly, rural folks use electric stoves. Gas appliances are most concentrated in the urban north.
Oh, and by the way, our gas bill this month is over $300.
“The Biden administration wants to nix gas stoves, are you kidding me? Like we need, I want gas stoves,” DeSantis lamented.
Others around DeSantis offered similarly warnings, including former spokesperson Christina Pushaw, who framed a potential gas stove ban as embodying the collectivist spirit of the USSR.
“Biden will ban gas stoves for normal people. Not for elites. This is Soviet America!” Pushaw tweeted.