Blog By: Antonio C. Ellzey
Ranges are appliances commonly found in many American homes and combine stovetops with ovens.[i] Most Americans use electricity to power their ranges, but some Americans use gas, especially in states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and California.[ii] The debate between gas and electric stovetops has especially been heating up for a while now.[iii] But what many Americans do not know is that gas stoves are not innocuous – and that is exactly what a pending California state law aims to address.[iv]
The California legislature recently passed Assembly Bill 2513 (“AB 2513”) in August 2024, which requires certain health and safety measures by prohibition: specifically, gas stoves may not be sold online or in retail stores in California without a conspicuous warning to consumers.[v] AB 2513 defines “gas stoves” as any residential gas stove or range used for indoor meal preparation and either cooks or broils food.[vi] The warning must inform Californians of “the risk of breathing in harmful gases,” recommend ventilation, and be as large as the largest font and type size on the product.[vii] However, AB 2513 neither mandates nor forces consumers to switch to electric stoves.
Many advocates of AB 2513, including medical professionals, argue legislation like AB 2513 is needed to disclose risks that adversely affect human health, but risks have “largely been hidden from the public.”[viii] These health risks develop from delicate particulates which irritate airways and cause asthma, cancer, and increased mortality.[ix] In addition, homes using gas stoves are more susceptible to carbon monoxide poisoning.[x] Advocates also argue that AB 2513 would increase efficiency and positively impact climate change.[xi]
However, opponents of AB 2513, predominantly conservatives and Republicans, suggest that it promotes an unjustified fearmongering among community members.[xii] In fact, Kentucky is one of twenty states to preemptively ban addressing the harmful effects of natural gas energy.[xiii] Opponents argue that AB 2513 is a “regulatory assault” on Americans’ “kitchen appliances” and that electric stoves are more expensive than their gas counterparts, mostly hurting low-income and working class Americans.[xiv]
What opponents of AB 2513 fail to realize, though, is that adopting alternatives to natural gas energy sources would promote efficiency and cleanliness, curb the impact on climate change, and, most importantly, save lives. Gas stoves employ burners and an open flame to heat food sources, which may lose some heat to the open air.[xv] Electric stoves, however, are typically flat and comprise of ceramic-glass that “rely on metal heating elements” acting as a huge “magnet,” which heats anything on its surface.[xvi] Its flat design also makes messes easier to clean.
Additionally, electric stoves are safer: because they use electricity, they do not leak any harmful gases. On the contrary, gas stoves burn natural gas to heat food sources, producing many harmful gases, including carbon dioxide and methane.[xvii] Thus, the more gas stoves that are in use, the more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, further exacerbating climate change. For example, in 2020, Kentucky power plants emitted as much carbon dioxide as nearly 12 million cars on the road; for perspective, Kentucky only registered about 4.5 million cars that same year![xviii]
In all, AB 2513 is a hot idea and a step in the right direction. Despite what some ideologies espouse, AB 2513 does not mandate the use of electric stoves. People are free to use gas stoves as AB 2513 only requires manufacturers to place conspicuous warning labels on their products that rely on natural gas to inform the public of the health risks.[xix] These health risks include asthma and other respiratory illnesses, cancers, and increased mortality, and they generally affect vulnerable community members. AB 2513 helps to raise public awareness around the dangers of using gas stoves, benefitting both the community and the environment. In short, more awareness means more lives saved, which means more people can continue enjoying meals prepared on their stoves, whether someone is cooking with gas or electricity.
[i] See In 2020, Most U.S. Households Prepared at Least One Hot Meal a Day at Home, U.S. Energy Info. Admin. (Aug. 15, 2022),https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=53439#:~:text=The%20majority%20of%20U.S.%20households,than%20in%20every%20other%20state [https://perma.cc/WJ8U-MCZD]; Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/range (last viewed Sept. 21, 2024) [https://perma.cc/GEL9-WSNR].
[ii] See Katharina Bucholz, Electric or Gas? What The U.S. Is Cooking On, Statista (Jan. 10, 2023), https://www.statista.com/chart/29082/most-common-type-of-stove-in-the-us/#:~:text=Electric%20stoves%20are%20overall%20more,surpasses%2070%20percent%20of%20households [https://perma.cc/DM2Y-CESK].
[iii] See Barbara Moran, Gas vs. Electric Stoves: Breaking Down Some Burning Health and Environment Questions, WBUR (May 9, 2023), https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/05/09/gas-electric-induction-stoves-heres-what-you-need-to-know [https://perma.cc/SXH8-X9RC].
[iv] Assemb. B. No. 2513, 2023-2024 Reg. Sess. (Cal. 2024) [https://perma.cc/TK74-8N7B] [edit: the Governor of California vetoed this bill on Sept. 27, 2024).
[v] Id.; Woolf Plumbing & Gas, How Does a Gas Stove Work?, https://woolfplumbing.com.au/blog/how-do-gas-stoves-work#:~:text=The%20burner%20gas%20stove%20works,electric%20spark%20at%20the%20burner (last viewed Sept. 21, 2024) [https://perma.cc/ZM55-9EJX].
[vi] See supra note 4.
[vii] Id.
[viii] See Jenn Engstrom, Medical Professionals Support Gas Stove Warning Label, CALPIRG (Apr. 24, 2024), https://pirg.org/california/resources/medical-professionals-support-gas-stove-warning-label/.
[ix] See Ctr. for Disease Control, Facts about Benzene, https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/benzene/basics/facts.asp (last viewed Sept. 21, 2024) [https://perma.cc/RDE6-JPV7]; Shiwen Huang et al., Long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide and mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis, 776 Sci. Total Env’t (2021) [https://perma.cc/3LQ3-PXY4]; Jeff Brady, Gas Stoves May Soon come with a Tobacco-style Health Warning Label in California, NPR (Sept. 28, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/09/13/nx-s1-5003074/climate-gas-stove-health-warning [https://perma.cc/4R6W-GWYC].
[x] Brady Seals, Reality Check: Gas Stoves Are a Health and Climate Problem (Feb. 15, 2023), https://rmi.org/gas-stoves-health-climate-asthma-risk/ [https://perma.cc/TZ6J-Q8S5].
[xi] See supra note 2; see also Brady, supra note 9. .
[xii] See, e.g., Ella Nilsen, Cities Tried to Cut Natural Gas from Homes. The GOP and Gas Lobby Preemptively Quashed their Effort, CNN (Feb. 17, 2022), https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/politics/natural-gas-ban-preemptive-laws-gop-climate/index.html [https://perma.cc/GH5F-JH7E]; Rachel Frazin, Republicans Thrust Gas Stoves into the Culture War, The Hill (Jan. 19, 2023), https://thehill.com/homenews/3818572-republicans-thrust-gas-stoves-into-the-culture-wars/.
[xiii] Nilsen, supra note 12.
[xiv] See Matthew Daly, Stove Wars: Republican-controlled House Approves Bills to Protect Gas Stoves, AP News (June 14, 2023), https://apnews.com/article/gas-stoves-ban-biden-energy-climate-regulation-d70577c96570cffd8bec84129b2c1a29.
[xv] Whirlpool Appliances, Gas vs. Electric Stoves: Which is Best?, https://www.whirlpool.com/blog/kitchen/electric-vs-gas-ranges.html#:~:text=Cost%20and%20efficiency&text=Some%20heat%20can%20be%20lost,to%20retain%20heat%20within%20them (last viewed Sept. 27, 2024) [https://perma.cc/W2RY-MCEK].
[xvi] Id.
[xvii] NASA, Carbon Dioxide, https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/?intent=121 (July 2024) [https://perma.cc/98FD-SAJS]; see Tanya Lewis, The Health Risks of Gas Stoves Explained, Sci. Am. (Jan. 19, 2023), https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-health-risks-of-gas-stoves-explained/#:~:text=Studies%20have%20also%20found%20that,cause%20or%20exacerbate%20respiratory%20problems [https://perma.cc/N4S8-AVAZ]; see also, e.g., Columbia Univ. Mailman Sch. of Health, What Science Says About the Health Risks of Gas Stoves (Apr. 7, 2023) [https://perma.cc/6P33-U9WD]; Gas Stoves and Your Health, Nat’l Inst. of Env’t Health Sciences (Mar. 22, 2023) [https://perma.cc/3S5L-WMZC].
[xviii] Niam Liemeyer, How Kentucky Generates Electricity – and Emits Tons of Greenhouse Gasses, Ky. Lantern (Jun. 14, 2023, 5:00 AM), https://kentuckylantern.com/2023/06/14/how-kentucky-generates-electricity-and-emits-tons-of-greenhouse-gasses/#:~:text=Kentucky%20power%20plants%20emitted%2053%2C725%2C429,registered%20motor%20vehicles%20in%202020 [https://perma.cc/3HFK-TB4N].
[xix] See supra note 4.