Republican Bill to Save Old Appliances Runs Out of Gas
The Supreme Allied Gas Commander could be coming to your neighborhood.
The split among House Republicans over the Debt Ceiling / Budget bill isn’t over. While we wait for news of Trump’s next round of indictments, CSPAN will undoubtedly be covering the failure of Speaker McCarthy to set rules allowing members to spew misinformation about climate change dressed up as a ploy by the left to take stuff from people.
The Republican House leadership expected to win approval of a pair of bills to protect our gas stoves from Joe Biden:
The 206-220 vote was the first time the House rejected a rule in 21 years. Messaging bills like these fail at sending the right message when your side can’t get them to the House floor for a vote.
Ironically, some of the leading climate deniers are on board with this procedural question because A) this act of defiance is aimed at the GOP leadership for failing to tank the US economy, and, B) the bill is just another example of performative nonsense with no chance of becoming law.
How do I know it’s blustering bullshit? Here’s Scott McFarlane at CBS News:
Gas-fueled kitchen stoves have emerged as unexpected cultural and wedge issue in recent months. The legislative deliberations this week are expected to be infused with heated and contentious rhetoric. Democrats offered a series of amendments, some of which mock the legislation and the decision by House Republicans to prioritize the bill.
A pair of amendments initially drafted by Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, appeared to lampoon the legislation. One such amendment called for a formal "sense of Congress that gas stoves merit consideration for an honorary statue in Statuary Hall" at the Capitol. Another of Moskowitz's initial amendments called for a "czar position" within the Department of Energy called the "Supreme Allied Gas Commander to police the use and sale of gas stoves."
During a Monday evening House Rules Committee hearing, Moskowitz slammed the prioritization legislation and said sponsors could change the name of the bill to "Stoves over gun violence act."
The premise for Republican appliance angst is the myth that Democrats are seeking to remove gas fired appliances from Real American homes and businesses.
As is true with any scare story emanating from a Republican politician’s mouth is based on some tabloid-style truth twisting. The feds are working on regulations discouraging the installation of gas appliances in new construction.
The truth of the matter is that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering regulating gas stoves. It’s not like health concerns about gas appliances are anything new.
A ProPublica article from earlier this year delved in the dangers of gas stoves, namely that:
Loose fittings or extinguished pilot lights leak methane, a greenhouse gas 30 to 86 times more effective at warming the planet than a pound of carbon dioxide:
When researchers analyzed 53 homes in California last year, they found methane leaking from almost every stove. More than three-quarters of that methane came from stoves that were turned off. The act of igniting a burner or oven released additional puffs of methane. If these leaks are consistent across the nation, then annual methane emissions from U.S. gas stoves would equal the greenhouse gas emissions of half a million cars.
Natural gas combustion releases nitrogen dioxide, a respiratory irritant known to exacerbate asthma and impair lung function.
“Simply having a combustion stove in your home is a health risk,” [Harvard Medical School professor Regina] LaRocque said. In poorly ventilated kitchens, nitrogen dioxide levels could exceed outdoor air standards. “It would be like standing behind an idling car, or standing in a smoke-filled room,” she added. “I think if my child had asthma, I would definitely want to intervene.”
Gas stoves leak benzene, a carcinogen that can cause leukemia.
In a separate study published last fall, Lebel and his colleagues analyzed gas samples from residential kitchens. Out of 160 samples, all but one contained benzene.
Public health experts have long warned of the risks of gas ranges. Indoor gas stoves were responsible for roughly 13% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S, according to one study. Consumers are being urged to transition away from natural gas by the American Public Health Association and American Medical Association.
Biden’s Federal Inflation Reduction Act provides rebates to upgrade to electric or induction home appliances and states (except those ruled by Republicans) are rolling out their own rebates as well.
So nobody’s coming to seize anybody’s appliances. And we get to watch Republicans eating their own. Enjoy!
An Assortment of Additional Astounding Articles
The Saudis buy professional golf Via Popular Information. Disregard any stories you may have heard about a merger; it was hard, cold, bonesaw-tainted cash.
On Tuesday, 9/11 Families United released a new statement: "Our entire 9/11 community has been betrayed by Commissioner Monahan and the PGA as it appears their concern for our loved ones was merely window-dressing in their quest for money." Eamon Lynch, a commentator for the Golf Channel, said the merger "reduces elite golf to public relations for a tyrant."
Here’s The Onion: LIV Golfers On Saudi Course Forced To Putt Around Woman Being Beheaded https://bit.ly/3T3qGzj
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Inside a DeSantis rally in Cedar Rapids Via Lyz at Men Yell At Me. Gov. Newsom can complain all he wants about kidnapped migrants; the GOP base thinks DeSantis is manly.
His biggest applause line was when spoke about sending 50 immigrants from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard. It was a political stunt that drew sharp criticism, but DeSantis looks cheerful and the crowd laughs. A Fox News poll from 2022 showed that the majority of Florida voters supported sending immigrants to sanctuary cities.
DeSantis, like the former president, has found a way to tap into the politics of resentment and vitriol. And he wears the criticism like a Boy Scout badge. When his wife Casey speaks, she says that she only worries when the press isn’t attacking her husband. She worries that if they aren’t attacking him, he’s not doing his job. The crowd applauds.
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It’s Going to Happen Again - Republicans are going to split the vote and hand the primary to Trump Via Hamilton Nolan at How Things Work
The single funniest political story I have read so far this year was this Politico story detailing the pitch that Ron DeSantis’s advisors were giving to top donors on the evening of his campaign launch.
They conceded that the former president would likely not go below roughly 35 percent support in a primary but that such a floor allowed for DeSantis, his strongest rival, to take a larger share of the remaining 65 percent of the vote.
Uh, sure. That’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is “you are starting out 35 points in the hole.” Another way to look at it is, “ten of us will fight like dogs over two-thirds of the electorate, each huddling in our corners with a small percentage in our mouths, while Donald Trump luxuriates in a series of 35/17/17/15/9/7 victories.”
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Correction from yesterday: I am turning 73 next week, not 74. But I still want to see Trump indicted on my birthday. Guess I’m getting old.
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I have to admit, there is an art to cooking on an electric range which I have yet to learn. Therefore I prefer a gas range. OTOH, I have had asthma for decades. When the Republicans make a fuss over something so inconsequential as this, I always wonder what they are trying to distract us from.