MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

It is the newest tempest in a teapot on the web and in Washington politics – what some have dubbed StoveGate. That’s the thought of banning pure gasoline cooking stoves. The controversy began with a comment from Richard Trumka, a commissioner on the Shopper Product Security Fee, final month earlier than a shopper advocacy group. He cited well being research about gasoline stoves.

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RICHARD TRUMKA: That is why I feel we should be speaking about regulating gasoline stoves, whether or not that is drastically bettering emissions or banning gasoline stoves completely.

KELLY: One other comment from Trumka this week has gotten some people, together with some members of Congress, all riled up on Twitter. Nicely, we’re going to flip down the warmth slightly and lay out some details. Jeff Brady from NPR’s Local weather Desk is right here to assist. Hey there.

JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Hello.

KELLY: For the report, is anybody within the federal authorities really planning to ban gasoline stoves?

BRADY: No. The purpose that Commissioner Trumka was making there’s that the Shopper Product Security Fee ought to maintain all its choices open due to the potential well being penalties of those gasoline ranges. What the fee is doing is opening a request for info beginning in March. The fee is researching gasoline emissions and exploring new methods to deal with well being dangers related to stoves. The place that leads is a good distance off, and Trumka is simply saying that they need to maintain the potential for banning gasoline range accessible as an choice.

KELLY: As somebody who cooks alone gasoline range in my kitchen fairly usually, what are the well being dangers?

BRADY: You recognize, most of us do not actually take into consideration this as a result of we have been utilizing gasoline stoves for thus lengthy. However you might be burning fossil gasoline. And normally, the air pollution that comes off that blue flame goes immediately into your kitchen. Lots of kitchens do not have hoods over the range that vent exterior. And even in kitchens with a very good vary hood, individuals usually do not use them as a result of they’re noisy.

KELLY: Tremendous noisy. Yeah.

BRADY: Yeah. And there have been research on how these stoves have an effect on indoor air high quality and well being. The gasoline utility business, authorities businesses and teachers have been researching this for many years. There is a rising physique of proof that youngsters in susceptible populations, individuals with bronchial asthma, for instance, can expertise brief and possibly even long-term well being results. However it takes a number of in-depth analysis for scientists to make an absolute connection between any pollutant and a illness. Now, the gasoline utility business has latched on to that uncertainty to forged doubt over the analysis that does exist. In order that’s why it may be complicated to kind out what’s reality and what’s misinformation right here.

KELLY: You are speaking about burning fossil fuels. And I am pondering, past well being, are there questions right here concerning the atmosphere, about local weather change?

BRADY: There are. Now, the greenhouse gasoline emissions from cooking aren’t that a lot, however the gasoline range is seen as a gateway equipment. Actual property brokers will inform you they are a promoting level. The gasoline utility business has lengthy inspired that with its cooking-with-gas marketing campaign. And a house with a gasoline vary is extra more likely to even have a gasoline furnace, a water heater and a dryer. And now you are speaking about extra emissions. And that is why there’s an effort to get houses transformed to electrical home equipment. These can cut back emissions if the ability is produced with low carbon sources like photo voltaic, wind or nuclear. Now, exterior houses, that gasoline range is linked to a whole community of pipelines, compressor stations, drilling rigs. And that system leaks methane at varied factors from starting to finish. And methane is a really potent greenhouse gasoline. There are efforts underway now by governments and business to get these leaks underneath management.

KELLY: And briefly, are all of us speaking about this now due to this one commissioner or are there different elements at play?

BRADY: There are a couple of different elements. There are efforts by state and native governments to restrict gasoline use in new buildings, all in an effort to assist meet their local weather targets. And in that large climate-focused price range invoice known as the Inflation Discount Act, there are incentives to encourage individuals to change to electrical.

KELLY: Jeff Brady from our Local weather Desk. Thanks, Jeff.

BRADY: Thanks.

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