The Great Gas Stove Debate
Hannah Flake
Following an uproar in American media about the possible ban of gas stoves earlier this year and significant pushback, more attention is being paid to the lobbying power behind the natural gas industry. This has huge implications for indoor air quality and in turn, climate change in the US and beyond.
In January, US Consumer Product Safety (CPSC) commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. set off a media firestorm when he implied that the federal agency was considering a ban on gas stoves due to newly publicized studies about their health risks.[1] “Any option was on the table,” he said, to manage the “hidden hazard” of gas stoves, especially regarding the risk of developing childhood asthma.[2] CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric quickly walked Trumka’s comments back in the face of public backlash, saying they had no plans to ban gas stoves.[3] Nevertheless, the comments had already launched a slew of headlines, tweets, and proposed legislation that was characterized by environmental journalist Rebecca Leber as a “full-fledged culture war.”[4]
With decades of research on the association between gas stoves and childhood asthma behind us, why the seemingly sudden push for regulatory and legislative reform?[5] Is this only because effects are worse than we thought, or is there more to the story? The complicated answer includes in part desire for reform in the face of climate change, pushback against lobbying and advertising from the natural gas industry as more of their duplicitous past efforts come to light, and perhaps even a change in how we look at the relationship between indoor and outdoor air and how it affects our neighbours.
The Push to Tackle Climate Change
While outdoor air quality has generally attracted more attention and regulation in the United States, the "mini fossil fuel plants" that Americans run in their homes have recently come under more scrutiny.[6]
Buildings and residences contribute 13% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions; the majority of which are actually generated by gas-powered boilers (a heating method that uses hot water or steam) rather than stoves.[7] The EPA has established a safety standard for the acceptable level of nitrogen oxide in outdoor air, but there is no agreed upon standard for indoor air.[8] Homes using gas stoves can “blow past” this outdoor standard in just a few minutes.[9]
In addition to nitrogen oxide emissions, new research shows that gas stoves leak more of the potent greenhouse gas methane than we previously thought – most of it while the stove is off.[10] Dr. Tara Kahan of the University of Saskatchewan, a researcher working on gas stove emissions, said that “all of the researchers were pretty horrified” by the newest findings regarding how long these harmful pollutants lingered in indoor environments; she quickly transitioned from a gas to electric stove in her own home.[11]
These pollutants don’t just remain indoors. Eventually, they leak outside, contributing to climate change and making gas stoves a target for climate related reform.
Pushback Against Lobbying
Some Republican politicians have staked out dramatic legislative positions since Trumka’s initial remarks. Congressmen Bill Huizenga and Alex Mooney introduced the Stop Trying to Obsessively Vilify Energy (STOVE) Act, which “pre-empts…bureaucratic overreach by prohibiting federal agencies from moving to ban gas stoves and similar gas-powered appliances,” and the Guarding America’s Stoves (GAS) Act, meant to “stop the Biden Administration from its contemplated ban on gas-burning stoves.”[12] But potential federal bans aside, there has been a lower-profile movement underway with legislation being introduced at the city and state level with the aim of reducing the installation and use of appliances running on natural gas.
A limited number of cities in the U.S. and Canada have already passed bans on natural gas in new construction projects, with the goal of limiting further investment in natural gas infrastructure.[13] Bans or restrictions on existing installations are more challenging politically, though not necessarily impossible. Several jurisdictions, including Montreal, have imposed limits on another respiratory hazard, woodburning stoves. A 2015 Montreal bylaw banned the use of pre-existing woodburning stoves that emit more than 2.5 grams of fine particulate matter per hour.[14] With no powerful wood stove lobby to contend with, legislators are more free to take aggressive action.
This new legislation has become the focus of substantial lobbying on both sides – and motivated by more than any emotional ties that voters may feel to their gas-powered appliances. Dark money groups (groups that are allowed to spend money without saying who their donors are) with ties to the natural gas industry are known to propose and circulate “model” legislation attempting to redefine the gas as clean energy, in addition to donating to conservative political campaigns.[15] A newly passed bill in Ohio defining methane gas as green energy is “the first step of a plan to introduce similar legislation in multiple states,” according to Dave Anderson, the policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute.[16] This ambitious and well-funded lobbying means increased opposition to, and visibility for, any proposed legislation that aims to limit the use of natural gas.
Canadian American Air Exchange
What does this explosion of public conversation about gas stoves, largely in the American political sphere and media, have to do with Canada? Increased attention in the American news cycle has a spillover effect in Canada, drawing more attention to natural gas issues north of the border. Beyond increased media attention, American air quality directly affects Canadian air.
While most efforts to improve air quality focus on local sources of pollution, we know that pollution from distant locations is also important.[17] The air quality of neighboring states or provinces and countries has a great effect on local air quality. One American study looked at premature mortality due to ozone exposure and found that up to “53 per cent of air-quality-related premature mortality resulting from a state’s emissions occurs outside that state.”[18] As emissions from electric power generation have gone down, residential emissions have taken up a larger share of premature mortality, especially due to fine particulate matter.[19] Indoor sources of fine particulate matter include things like burning candles, fireplaces, furnaces, and of course, stoves.[20]
Because the pollution affecting local air originates in a location ruled by another jurisdiction, it can be difficult to regulate transborder air pollution. The Canada-US Air Quality Agreement attempts to “control and reduce transboundary air pollution,” largely through monitoring and sharing information and with a focus on acid rain and smog.[21] From the Canadian government’s perspective, it is obvious who is seen as the polluter versus who needs protection: “Cross-border air pollution from the U.S. impacts Canadian air quality. Prevailing winds can carry air pollutants from the U.S. to Canada.”[22] This illustrates how the Canadian government understands the ways in which U.S. law and regulation deeply impact Canadians.
Indoor air pollution, especially in residences, may be seeing tighter regulation in the coming years as new research emerges. The pollution occurs in larger quantities and lingers in the air for longer than we thought, with worse outcomes for our health and the environment around us. As regulations tighten and backlash increases, the Great Gas Stove Debate could be just the beginning of many contentious battles to come.
Hannah Flake is a 1L in the McGill Faculty of Law. Originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, she spent most of the previous decade working at an environmental nonprofit that provided legal insurance to land trusts across the United States. Special thanks to Cat Dunne, Emma Jacobs, and Michael Lang for their support on this blog post.
[1] See Breanne Deppisch, “The obscure regulator (and political scion) who sparked the furor over gas stoves”, Washington Examiner (12 January 2023), online: <www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/richard-trumka-jr-regulator-scion-spark-furor-gas-stoves>.
[2] Ibid.
[3] See United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, News Release, “Statement of Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric Regarding Gas Stoves” (11 January 2023), online: <cpsc.gov/About-CPSC/Chairman/Alexander-Hoehn-Saric/Statement/Statement-of-Chair-Alexander-Hoehn-Saric-Regarding-Gas-Stoves>
[4] See Rebecca Leber, “5 myths about gas stoves, the latest culture war clash”, Vox (20 January 2023), online: <vox.com/energy-and-environment/23559852/gas-stove-myths-debunked>
[5] See Don Rauf, “Study Linking Gas Stoves to Asthma Incites Controversy”, Everyday Health (20 January 2023), online: < www.everydayhealth.com/lung-respiratory/study-linking-gas-stoves-to-asthma-ignites-controversy>.
[6] See Rebecca Leber, “The next frontier for climate action is the great indoors”, Vox (14 October 2022), online: <vox.com/energy-and-environment/2022/10/14/23393294/climate-buildings-gas-stoves-electrification>.
[7] See Somini Sengupta, “About That Gas Stove”, The New York Times (13 January 2023), online: <nytimes.com/2023/01/13/climate/gas-stove-questions.html>.
[8] See United States Environmental Protection Agency, “Nitrogen Dioxide's Impact on Indoor Air Quality” (last updated 3 March 2022), online: <epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/nitrogen-dioxides-impact-indoor-air-quality>.
[9] See Dani Blume, “Gas Stoves Are Tied to Health Concerns. Here’s How to Lower your Risk”, The New York Times (11 January 2023), online: <nytimes.com/2023/01/11/well/live/gas-stoves-health-risks.html>.
[10] See The Associated Press, “Gas stoves leak methane even while off, boosting climate change”, CBC News (7 March 2022), online: <cbc.ca/news/science/gas-stoves-methane-1.6331496>.
[11] Ibid.
[12] See Congressman Bill Huizenga, Press Release, “Huizenga, Mooney Introduce STOVE Act to Block a Potential Ban on Gas Stoves” (11 January 2023), online: <huizenga.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=401521>; Darrell Issa, Press Release, “Issa Introduces the GAS Act to Prevent the Biden Administration Ban on Gas Stoves” (12 January 2023), online: <issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/issa-introduces-gas-act-prevent-biden-administration-ban-gas-stoves>.
[13] See Alex Brown, “Natural Gas Bans Are New Front in Effort to Curb Emissions”, Pew Research Center (6 January 2022), online: <www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/01/06/natural-gas-bans-are-new-front-in-effort-to-curb-emissions>.
[14] See City of Montreal, by-law No 15-069, By-Law Concerning Solid-Fuel-Burning Devices and Fireplaces (17 August 2015).
[15] See Maxine Joselow, “How dark money groups led Ohio to redefine gas as ‘green energy’”, Washington Post (17 January 2023), online: <washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/17/ohio-natural-gas-green-energy>.
[16] Ibid.
[17] See Irene C Dedoussi, Sebastian D Eastham, Erwan Monier & Steven RH Barrett, “Premature mortality related to United States cross-state air pollution” (2020) 578 Nature 261 at 261.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] See Government of Canada, “Infographic: What is fine particulate matter (PM2.5)?” (14 April 2021), online: <www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/healthy-living/infographic-fine-particulate-matter.html>.
[21] See Agreement between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States on Air Quality (AQA), Canada and United States, 13 March 1991 (entered into force 13 March 1991).
[22] Ibid.