Politics

EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmakers Double-Down On Investigation Into Activist Groups Pushing To Ban Gas Stoves

Blue gas stove in the dark

Ranking Member Ted Cruz of the Senate Commerce Committee and Chairman James Comer of the House Oversight Committee on April 26 demanded additional information about the activity of activist groups linked to recent efforts to ban gas stoves, according to a trio of letters obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Cruz had previously contacted the four organizations — consumer advocacy nonprofit Consumer Reports, electrification nonprofit Rewiring America, conservation group Windward Fund and climate policy nonprofit Climate Imperative Foundation (CIF) —   in a trio of oversight letters sent on March 15 and March 16, requesting information about whether they had consulted with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regarding a potential gas stove ban. Comer and Cruz slammed the groups for failing to completely answer the questions that had been posed to them, in particular calling out Rewiring America for providing a “one-paragraph” response that “reads like the ‘About Us’ section on the organization’s website.”

“Such lack of transparency with Congress and the American public is unacceptable,” the lawmakers wrote near the conclusion of each letter, setting a May 10 deadline for the groups to respond.

RM Cruz & Chairman Come… by John Hugh DeMastri

CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr., sparked a nationwide debate when he said that “all options were on the table” to regulate gas stoves due to potentially deleterious health effects, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trumika had previously proposed a gas stove ban in an October 2022 internal CPSC memo, which cited a CIF-funded study conducted by Consumer Reports, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.

RM Cruz & Chairman Come… by John Hugh DeMastri

CIF — which gave $375,000 to Consumer Reports in 2021 to study “gas stoves and indoor air quality” according to publicly available tax documents — until February listed Wang Yi, which the group identified as the Deputy Director-General of the Institute of Policy and Management for the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as an advisor until at least February 2023, according to an archived copy of the organization’s website. Wang also serves as a member of the Chinese legislature, according to the state-sponsored Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

RM Cruz & Chairman Come… by John Hugh DeMastri

The Republican lawmakers also asked Rewiring America, and financial backer Windward Fund, to confirm that the group had received $400,000 in funding from CIF and to explain that funding was used for. Biden-appointee Sec. Jennifer Granholm of the Department of Energy in January promoted the Inflation Reduction Act on Twitter, citing a study — whose lead author was Rewiring America researcher Talor Gruenwald — that attributed 13% of all childhood asthma to gas stove use.

Cruz had previously sent a letter to the CPSC on March 16, demanding that the agency maintain records related to a potential gas stove ban, pursuant to a previous request for documentation surrounding the agency’s relationship with environmental groups. The CPSC on March 1 opened a public request for information about the harmful effects of gas stove emissions, the results of which could be used to justify a future ban.

Consumer Reports, Rewiring America, Windward Fund and CIF did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment.