JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.- In an effort to enforce the laws as written, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey joined a coalition of 21 state attorneys general in opposing the Biden Administration’s proposed standards for conventional cooking products that would regulate the types of stoves and ovens Americans use to cook. Proposed by the Department of Energy (DOE), the rule would make over half of the gas stoves currently on the market illegal.
“As Attorney General, I will enforce the laws as written and block the Biden Administration from unilaterally creating regulations that unlawfully interfere with Missourians’ ability to live freely,” said Attorney General Bailey. “I’m proud to stand with 21 other states against yet another attempt by the federal government to force its radical climate ideology onto everyday Americans.”
The attorneys general directed the letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, noting that this new attempt “to micro-manage the lives of Americans” has little support. For example, DOE extensively and unlawfully uses purported social costs of carbon, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions to justify the proposed rule. The attorneys general point out that those numbers are the product not of data, but of arbitrary assumptions which, as here, can be set to justify any regulation.
Additionally, General Bailey and the other states assert that the DOE ignored the federalism implications of interfering with the States’ traditional authority to regulate consumer goods. The states also call attention to the constitutional concerns of expanding DOE’s regulatory authority to include intrastate commerce. There is “no constitutional basis for application of the Standards to intrastate stove and oven markets,” the letter states.
In addition to General Bailey, the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.