Former California state senate majority leader Gloria Romero has abandoned the Democratic Party over its neo-Puritanical crackdown on gas appliances, gas stoves in particular. The last straw for this Latina was one we Texans fully understand.
“I for example think we are going to solve nothing by banning gas stoves,” Romero told NBC News 4 San Antonio. “As a Latina, I will not give up my gas stove because you cannot toast a tortilla on an electric range.”
One might add, you cannot immediately adjust the temperature on an electric range, either.
While California is hardly the only state seeking to ban gas appliances (and natural gas altogether, despite the fact that it burns much cleaner than coal), the much-tarnished Golden State has been the chief hotbed of the controversy.
According to the Energy Information Administration, California in 2020 had the nation’s highest percentage of households using natural gas for cooking (70%); 88% used natural gas for some purpose, second only to Utah. While gas water heaters and furnaces also remain popular in California homes, the state’s powerful Air Resources Board unanimously in 2022 approved a proposal to ban the sale of all new gas furnaces and water heaters by 2030.
California also has twice as many internal combustion engine vehicles (over 31 million) than second-ranked Florida (16 million) and 13% of the national total. The combined number of electric, hybrid, and hybrid-electric vehicles in California (about 3 million) is only 10% of the current California fleet. But the California Puritans want to shame 90% of drivers.
While Los........