Forget about abortion, guns or masks. No, the new rallying cry of Republicans and defenders of freedoms in the face of idiotic government regulations: rather die than give up my gas stove. Even though no one threatened to confiscate them.
The fire started after remarks by the head of a government agency which provoked one of these controversies punctuating political life in the United States. In a recent interview with the Bloomberg agency, Richard Trumka, a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), said that because of the pollution emitted by this type of cooker, their ban was not in order. discard.
“It’s a hidden danger,” he said, referring to the potential respiratory problems they can cause. “All options are on the table. Products that cannot be made safe may be banned”. It was enough to start the rumor of an imminent ban on gas stoves and to raise cries of outrage at officials and right-wing Internet users. Two days later, the manager assured that a ban was not on the table, that he was talking about new regulations. Nothing worked.
“You’ll have to come and snatch it out of my hands!” »
Rising against a possible attempt to trample on their freedoms, some posed as heralds of well-cooked food – “electric cookers suck”, according to conservative commentator Matt Walsh – others of the most disadvantaged in the face of government officials seen as privileged, induction hobs being expensive in the United States.
“The Democrats are going to attack your kitchen appliances,” said Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton. “Their will to control every aspect of your life has no limits, including how you cook your breakfast,” he tweeted.
South Carolina elected official Jeff Duncan told him that he saw it as a new “abuse of power” by the Biden administration. “Washington bureaucrats should have no say in how Americans cook their dinner,” he thundered on Twitter. “I will NEVER give up my gas stove,” added Donald Trump’s former White House doctor, Ronny Jackson.
And like other netizens, Florida lawmaker Matt Gaetz proudly posted a video of a gas stove burner – around 35% of kitchens in the United States run on gas. “You’ll have to come and snatch it out of my hands!” “, he wrote, taking up a formula popularized in particular by actor Charlton Heston, long president of the powerful arms lobby NRA, who had hammered it in 2000 by brandishing a rifle to warn the Democrats against any desire to attack firearms.
In the same vein, Ohio elected official Jim Jordan posted this tweet sounding like a motto: “God. Fire arms. Gas stoves”. Even Democrat and coal-fired proponent Joe Manchin said, “Government should have no say in how Americans cook. »
Biden against a ban
Faced with the overheating – sincere or perhaps unaffected – of the spirits, the White House and the boss of the Consumer Product Safety Commission had to speak out.
“The president (Joe Biden) does not support a ban on gas stoves,” his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said. And the commission, “which is independent, does not prohibit gas stoves”.
“I want to set the record straight. Contrary to recent press reports, I am not seeking to ban gas stoves,” CPSC chief Alex Hoehn-Saric wrote to him, while recalling that according to studies, “emissions from gas stoves can be dangerous”.
Recent research (which is not unanimous) in fact accuses gas cooking of being responsible for around 12% of childhood asthma cases in the United States and Europe. Without that stopping the flow of outraged reactions on the right.