SATIRE (unless it isn't)
THE HOAX FILES · 36
"Any Option Is on the Table"
"Nobody's coming for your gas stove." Also: "Any option is on the table."
Bloomberg, then CNN
A federal regulator floated a ban. Then everyone said nobody was coming for your stove, and states went after new kitchens instead.
As printed on the graphic:
Joe Biden Will Never Ban Gas Stoves Hoax
What they sold
January 2023. Bloomberg reports that U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said "any option is on the table," bans included, over gas-stove health concerns. Backlash erupts. CNN, January 11, 2023: "We're not taking away your gas stove, regulator tells CNN." The White House said Biden didn't support a ban. The media's line: right-wing panic, nobody's coming for your stove.
What the record shows
Both are true, so FNN prints both. No federal gas-stove ban was enacted. CPSC never opened a ban proceeding (FactCheck.org). Biden didn't ban gas stoves.
But the "relax" coverage skated past three things. One: a sitting commissioner said a ban was on the table. That wasn't a right-wing invention. It was a quote. Two: on January 29, 2024, the Energy Department finalized efficiency standards for cooktops, gas included, taking effect in 2028. That's a rule, not a ban. Three: New York State passed a law in 2023 phasing out gas in most new buildings (CNN). "Nobody's coming for your stove" was true for the stove you already own. For new kitchens in some places, not so much.
The damage
FNN analysis: when "no federal ban" gets rounded up to "this is a fake panic," people living through local bans feel gaslit (pun intended). Gallup's 2023 trust: 32%. 39% had none at all.
Closer
No ban, just a regulator's quote, a federal rule and a state law. "Never" was a word game.