'Do You Think That's Appropriate?': Debbie Lesko Grills CPSC Commissioner Over Gas Stoves Tweet

4 months ago

During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) questioned witnesses about the rulemaking process and gas stoves.

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00:00lady from Florida for filling in for me, but I didn't want her to get too comfortable. All right

00:07folks, next we have the gentlelady from Arizona, Ms. Lasco for her five minutes of questioning.

00:15Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner Trumka, you tweeted from your official account as a CPSC

00:25commissioner several statements putting the safety of gas stoves into question.

00:31Do you believe it's appropriate for a commissioner to do this before the commission

00:36has made a safety determination? Thank you for the question, Representative. I do believe it

00:43is incumbent to share safety concerns as an individual commissioner when we see them.

00:49So even before the commission made the determination, you thought it was perfectly

00:53fine. Well, I think there's a few different things. I mean, if you're talking about rule

00:57making, that is a process that we go through as a commission, but sharing our concerns about

01:01individual potential product hazards is something that commissioners do. Commissioner Trumka,

01:07you also tweeted your support for legislation to ban fossil fuels and phase gas stoves out of homes.

01:15Do you think that's appropriate for a commissioner? I'm not sure what you're referring to. I don't

01:20remember doing that. I'm going to ask Chair Cohen-Serica a question. Mr. Chair, on March 1st,

01:302023, the Consumer Protection Safety Commission approved a request for information related to gas

01:38stoves, which was characterized as, I quote, gas stove hazards and potential solutions.

01:45Does the CPSC have any plans to re-regulate or regulate gas stoves or other gas fired appliances?

01:53So there's no plans for any regulatory rulings. Obviously, there's a law that's passed. We do

01:59actively look at individual products and have conducted at least four recalls of gas stoves

02:05where it was carbon monoxide leaks. So we continue that work, but not with respect to

02:13regulating. We do examine it. We've been working with voluntary standards committees. I think

02:18industry has recognized the importance of both trying to measure the fumes coming off of stoves

02:25and honestly all cooking, and then how to deal with those and whether ventilation is appropriate.

02:30So the agency continues to work in the voluntary process and to gather more information about the

02:36potential health issues associated with gas stoves, as we do for all consumer products.

02:42So you currently don't plan to ban gas stoves, is that correct?

02:46No, Congresswoman, there's no plan to ban gas stoves.

02:49All right. Mr. Chair, when the Consumer Protection Safety Commission issues RFIs on a product,

02:58do they usually infer that there is an existing hazard requiring a solution,

03:04or is the RFI process intended to gather information to inform the Commission as to

03:09whether their hazard even exists? So usually if we're going to do an RFI,

03:15there's some indication that there's a reason that this is an area that the Commission should

03:20be looking at. So in the case of gas stoves, we've been talking to the industry about fumes coming

03:26off of those stoves. So obviously that was an area that the Commission's focused on. Other RFIs have

03:32focused on things like specific issues with bikes and others. So we tend to look, not just

03:40throw something out broadly, but to see if there's a problem and then gather information to see

03:44whether there are any next steps or information that can be used either by industry or by us

03:50to be able to improve the safety of products. Regarding this request for information related

03:55to gas stoves, what has the CPSC done with the information gathered during that process?

04:03So we received over 9,000 comments from a variety of stakeholders from academics to industry.

04:09Those are all public and available for people to take a look at and to examine and use in the

04:14voluntary standards process as others. Staff is still in the process of reviewing them at this

04:20point in time. So besides reviewing it, does the CPSC have plans to do anything further with

04:28information gathered via the RFI? Any next steps generally would be done through a vote of all the

04:36Commissioners. At this point in time, there's nothing in our operating plan to move forward

04:41in a regulatory as in rulemaking process. Again, when we deal with individual hazards coming out

04:46of stoves or any products, we do take action and we do try and get products recalled if they are

04:53defective or dangerous. Thank you and I yield back.

'Do You Think That's Appropriate?': Debbie Lesko Grills CPSC Commissioner Over Gas Stoves Tweet

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