by Deroy Murdock
Southern Democrats attacked the U.S Army at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861. Having ignited the Civil War, these Southerners had the chutzpah to call it the War of Northern Aggression.
In like fashion, Democrats unleashed today’s War on Gas. Inspired by their Confederate ancestors, they then blame their victims who complain that the Left is stealing their natural gas and gas-powered appliances.
Democrats shot first. But when everyday Americans fight back, Democrats and their media bodyguards accuse conservatives of letting slip the dogs of culture war.
Tucker Carlson recently compiled a panoply of relevant Democrat-Left lies on the issue:
- “This is delusional drivel from the harem of the unhinged over at Fox News,” state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Pa., complained.
- MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan denounced what he called “the imaginary ban on gas stoves they’re all getting mad about over on Fox.”
- “You have [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis saying, ‘I’m going to protect your gas stove,’” said Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, “‘Gas stove. Gas stove.’ It’s so stupid.”
- Beneath a graphic that read: “GOP distracts from unpopular agenda with culture wars,” MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin said Republicans refuse “to have gas stoves pried out of their cold, dead hands—equating it with God and country and what have you.”
- A Washington Post headline: “GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden’s green agenda into the culture wars.”
Despite this parade of liberal lies, the Right is not hallucinating on the Left’s incoming regulatory fire. Democrats’ unhinged, unprovoked, and unwelcome volleys in the War on Gas are real.
Here are just a few:
July 23, 2019: “Berkeley became first U.S. city to ban natural gas. Here’s what that may mean for the future,” read a headline in The Guardian of London about the California city. Susie Cagle wrote: “Natural gas, it seems, has become the new climate crisis frontline.”
Feb. 2, 2021: “Seattle bans natural gas in new buildings,” KUOW radio reported. “The ban on appliances like gas furnaces and gas water heaters in new construction is part of a revised energy code,” John Ryan explained. “The code proposed by [then-Mayor] Jenny Durkan passed Seattle City Council 9-0 on Monday.”
Dec. 15, 2021: “New York City Banned Gas in New Buildings. Here’s What You Need to Know,” TheCity.nyc headlined Samantha Maldonado’s story. She explained: “The City Council on Wednesday passed a bill making New York the largest city in the United States to effectively ban the use of gas in new buildings and to turn to electricity for power.”
May 27, 2022: “L.A. is banning most gas appliances in new homes,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “Get ready for electric stoves.”
Oct. 26, 2022: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s meeting minutes featured 15 different references to natural gas. The CPSC approved Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr.’s Amendment 3A: “By March 1, 2023, staff will prepare and submit to the Commission a Request for Information (RFI) to seek public input on hazards associated with gas stoves and proposed solutions to those hazards.”
Jan. 11: “A US federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves,” CNN declared. The White House that same day distanced President Joe Biden from the CPSC’s gasophobia.
Jan. 13: “[Gov. Kathy] Hochul wants gas stove ban for new homes in 2025,” WRGB-TV, CBS’ Albany, New York, affiliate reported about the Empire State’s Democratic chief executive.
Feb. 1: “Gas Stoves Are Back Under Scrutiny,” Bloomberg headlined Ari Natter’s dispatch. Following the CPSC’s lead, the U.S. Energy Department “sets first-of-their-kind limits on energy consumption for the stoves.”
This relentless onslaught against human freedom and consumer choice is a devotional exercise in the Left’s Climatarian faith. Natural gas chops CO2 emissions in half, as compared with Democrats’ much-loathed coal.
Never mind! To those who worship St. Albert Gore and St. Greta Thunberg, gas is the breath of Satan.
As a daily communicant in the First Church of Song, I describe conservatives’ culpability in the Democrat-Left’s War on Gas by invoking the gospel of St. Billy Joel: “We didn’t start the fire.”
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Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor and a contributing editor with National Review Online.
