New Jersey is not banning your gas stove — at least not under any policy currently up for consideration. That’s despite several lawmakers’ claims to the contrary.
“Join the fight. If you want to keep your stove, vote Republican,” Jack Ciattarelli, the perennial candidate for governor, said in a social media post. It’s a policy claim other GOP leaders are pushing as well.
No pending measure would deprive New Jerseyans of their gas stoves, but the claims have taken on a life of their own and widened the Garden State’s political divide over climate change – during a summer of forest fires, smoky skies and extreme heat.
Republican leaders have opposed Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration’s ambitious plans for offshore wind and electric vehicle adoption.
Now, they’re taking up the mantle against financial incentives that would encourage residents to electrify their homes and retire equipment, including gas stoves.
The kerfuffle over gas stoves flared up when the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities proposed a since-passed policy requiring utility companies to offer incentives to consumers to adopt more energy-efficient infrastructure in their homes. The utilities will also be allowed to offer incentives to commercial and industrial customers.
It’s part of a three-year energy efficiency plan that includes reducing the consumption of natural gas, a fossil fuel and a major cause of climate change. The efforts come in tandem with executive orders Murphy issued earlier this year aiming to electrify 400,000 more residential units and telling the BPU to develop plans that would sharply reduce emissions from natural gas companies by 2030.
“Unequivocally, this administration is coming after gas stoves,” said state Sen. Holly Schepisi, a Republican who represents part of Bergen and Passaic counties.
She contends Democrats and the Murphy administration won’t admit it, but after the state legislative elections in November, the governor will establish new regulations…
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