The gas stove gaslighters

"Nobody is taking away your gas stove," a scornful Senator Chuck Schumer tweeted in February. "Shameless and desperate MAGA Republicans are showing us they will cook up any distraction to divert from real issues."

Media progressives backed him up.

"The least convincing fake Republican outrage ever," Amanda Marcotte snorted in Salon. "Republicans Are Now Flipping Out Over Gas Stoves," smirked Mother Jones. "Republicans have found their new dumb culture war," James Downie chimed in at MSNBC. "Hot Air Over Gas Stoves," intoned Factcheck.org.

But what do you know? The Republicans were right.

"New York is the first state in the country to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in most new buildings," CNN reported last week.

Facing mounting pressure from environmental advocates and climate-minded voters, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Democratic lawmakers, who control the New York Senate and Assembly, approved the new $229 billion state budget containing the provision late Tuesday night. The law bans gas-powered stoves, furnaces, and propane heating and effectively encourages the use of climate-friendly appliances such as heat pumps and induction stoves in most new residential buildings across the state. It requires all-electric heating and cooking in new buildings shorter than seven stories by 2026 and for taller buildings by 2029.

This topic emerged as a national issue back in December. Twenty Democratic members of Congress — including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts — signed a letter urging the Consumer Product Safety Commission to "take action" to address the "risks" posed by gas stoves and pointedly emphasized that "the CPSC has broad authority under the Consumer Product Safety Act to regulate consumer products."

A few weeks later, Bloomberg interviewed Richard Trumka Jr., one of the agency's commissioners. "Any option is on the table," he said when asked about gas stoves. "Products that can't be made safe can be banned." Bloomberg reported the interview under the headline "US Safety Agency to Consider Ban on Gas Stoves Amid Health Fears." That triggered the conservative warnings about a potential threat to the popular kitchen appliance, which are used in 37 percent of US homes and 76 percent of restaurants.

Political rhetoric being what it is, some of the GOP comments were over the top ("G od. Guns. Gas stoves," tweeted Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio). But much of the commentary on the right pointed out that a war on natural gas was in fact well underway. Writing in Reason, Liz Wolfe noted that gas hookups were already banned or sharply discouraged in New York City and dozens of California municipalities. The misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which President Biden signed into law last year, includes financial incentives for consumers to replace gas stoves and cooktops with electric models.

And now the nation's fourth largest state by population is banning the use of natural gas in new construction — "a move that could help reshape how Americans heat and cook in their homes in the coming decades," in The Washington Post's words.

Republicans claimed that progressives were gearing up to go after gas stoves, and progressives tried to tell them they were crazy. It's pretty clear who was gaslighting whom.

Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission."