How the Gas-Stove Debate Has Played Out in California

You may have heard chatter recently about gas stoves: whether they’re bad for your health, or the planet’s, and whether they’re soon going to be banned in your city or state.

Last week, a suggestion that gas stoves may one day be regulated by the federal government started a rumpus in Washington. There’s growing recognition that gas stoves release hazardous chemicals into homes, contribute to global warming and produce emissions that may be linked to rates of childhood asthma.

Bans on gas appliances are unlikely to advance in Washington anytime soon because of fierce opposition from the gas industry and its political allies. But what about in California?

For the past few years, our state has been on the leading edge of gas-stove bans.

Republicans tend to be the loudest defenders of natural gas, but gas-powered stoves tend to be most common largely in Democratic-controlled states, my colleagues Elena Shao and Lisa Friedman report. In fact, the state with the highest percentage of households using natural gas for cooking (70 percent) is California, according to a 2020 analysis from the Energy Information Administration.

(If you have a gas stove, here’s a guide to mitigating the risks. “No one should freak out,” said Dr. Aaron Bernstein, the interim director of the Center for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.)

Much of the research on gas stoves is conducted in California, including recent highly publicized studies finding that the stoves leak benzene, a carcinogen, and methane, a potent greenhouse gas, even when they’re turned off.

And “like many climate policies, the push to phase out natural gas in buildings began in California,” my colleague Brad Plumer writes.

In 2019, Berkeley became the first city in the nation to ban gas hookups in most new residences and commercial buildings, mainly to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. Since then, at least 50 California cities and counties, including San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles, have adopted similar rules, often over the objections of local gas utilities.

The industry has leaned heavily into promoting gas stoves, in the belief that consumers — and chefs — still love cooking over an open flame. The California Restaurant Association first sued Berkeley in 2019 over its ban.

There’s no statewide regulation to prohibit gas stoves here, but California is pushing forward with other ways to limit use of natural gas.

Gas water heaters and furnaces remain popular in California homes, and in September, the California Air Resources Board unanimously approved a proposal to ban the sale of all new gas furnaces and water heaters by 2030. The regulation would require zero-emission alternatives like electric heating to be used instead. (Stoves wouldn’t be affected.)

More votes are required before the rule would become official, but even so, the September vote is seen as a major step.

“We’re really hopeful that this is the beginning of a domino effect, and other states will follow California’s lead,” Leah Louis-Prescott, a senior associate at RMI, a nonprofit group promoting a transition to clean energy, told Bloomberg at the time.

For more:

If you read one story, make it this

Laws went into effect in California and Washington State this month that require companies to post salary ranges for job openings. Who will benefit?

What you get

For $4.5 million: A 1927 Spanish-style home in Los Angeles, a four-bedroom townhouse in Manhattan Beach and a compound on more than 400 acres in Yorkville.

What we’re eating

Recipes for a rainy day.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Dick Estel, who lives in Clovis. He recommends the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House in Ukiah:

“Grace Hudson was born in 1865 in Potter Valley, not far from Ukiah, but lived in the latter town most of her life, which ended in 1937. A member of a distinguished and accomplished family, Grace showed a talent for art early in life, and entered the San Francisco School of Design at age 14. Although she worked in various media and with multiple subjects, her focus was the Pomo Indian people she had grown up among, and she created hundreds of luminescent paintings of Native Americans. Her husband, originally a physician, gave up his practice to study the Pomo culture and history.

Although the museum presents local history and artifacts, the thing that most impressed me were her paintings of the Pomo people. Several works that feature children reminded me of my own grand- and great-grandchildren — scenes that show universal human experience and remind us of the unity of the inhabitants of our fragile spaceship.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

To live in California is to live with the power of nature — the Santa Ana wind, the earthquake’s rumble, the burn scar, the flood warning, the evacuation order. And as our editor, Kevin Yamamura, noted this week, most Californians have some immense natural occurrence among their most vivid memories.

Tell us yours. Where were you when the Northridge earthquake hit, or Loma Prieta? Is there an image from wildfire season or a winter storm that will stick in your mind forever? Was there a moment when the ferocity of nature in California took you out of yourself and upended your perspective? Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com with your memories.

And before you go, some good news

In December, a pup named Polaris arrived in San Francisco with a traveler from an international destination. But the dog was abandoned at the airport when “the customer chose to continue traveling on without his animal,” according to the San Francisco SPCA.

The local animal shelter and United Airlines staff partnered to care for the puppy and ensure he met necessary requirements to stay in the United States. Once the dog completed a quarantine period, a United pilot decided to adopt the puppy, CNN reports.

“It’s a great feeling to see this story come full circle and that Polaris will have a loving home,” Vincent Passafiume, director of customer service at United Airlines, said.

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword.

Briana Scalia and Isabella Grullón Paz contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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