The Biden administration, citing concern over air pollution, is moving to ban stoves powered by natural gas, setting up a battle of citizens against a Department of Energy looking to impose unpopular regulations that would never pass as legislation in Congress.

This fire was lit in January, when a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Richard Trumka, lit the fire by calling gas stoves “a hidden hazard.” He said: “Products that can’t be made safe can be banned,” prompting howls of outrage from kitchens nationwide.

“Americans are rallying in defense of their gas stoves,” I wrote then in the Sun, “prompting the left to deny such plans exist and dismiss such talk as conspiracy theories.” The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, rolled out one of the administration’s infamous denials. 

“‘I am not looking to ban gas stoves,’” Ms. Jean-Pierre said, quoting the Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman, Alexander Hoehn-Saric, “‘and the CPSC has no proceeding to do so.’” Democratic allies echoed the refutations, with the Recount’s John Heilemann saying that Republicans were pushing bull manure. 

Now we see just who was spreading what from the wrong end of the bovine. The Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm — who called stories like mine “ridiculous” and “not true” — met in private with the leader of the special interest group whose study lit the match, the Rocky Mountain Institute, whose ties to Communist China have been documented by the Free Beacon. 

The DOE is now proposing fuel-efficiency standards that make almost all gas stoves illegal. The Republican congresswoman from Arizona, Debra Lesko, wrote in the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that “gas cooktops at the max-tech level represent just 4 percent of current market share and exclude all conventional free-stand ranges.” 

To move beyond the lies and pry Americans away from their beloved stoves, the DOE promises that converting to electricity “would result in significant energy savings,” but Ms. Lesko ran the numbers. Americans, she said, will save “just $1.50 per year.” 

Even that assumes that electricity prices remain stable, but with all the electric vehicles the administration wants to add without any corresponding increase in production or expansion of the grid, expect cost to increase as supply dwindles. 

Another inconvenient truth for the administration is that an electric range sucks a lot more power than a gas counterpart, which uses a standard 120-volt outlet. Upgrading to the required receptacle means hiring an electrician, which renders those six quarters of annual savings meaningless.

Gas has another advantage: It almost never fails. Gas stoves use electricity to run only computer components and igniters, so they keep running when power goes offline, while last Christmas alone, about 1.7 million businesses and homes went dark according to the press association. 

“Residents of states like Florida, which lies in Hurricane Alley, know that storms can knock out power, making the ability to heat homes, cook, and boil water life-saving essentials — not to mention the need to take a long, hot shower after wading through toxic floodwaters,” ” I wrote in the Sun.

Americans also live what Mr. Trumka called “a carefully manicured myth” that gas is required for “fine dining.” As the author of “Regional Greek Cooking,” I know gas offers temperature control that electric filaments can’t offer, because it’s not possible to tick them up, down, or off in an instant. 

Professionals such as the co-host of the SoCal Restaurant Show, Chef Andrew Gruel, agree. “You’re going to have restaurants that are just fully equipped with microwaves,” he told Fox Business. “You cannot commercially cook food without gas right now the way the system is set up.”

As for pollutants, they can be dealt with by installing a range hood or by cooks cracking a window. They’ve been doing so with their own hands for centuries without relying on the intrusive hand of government to tear out their old stoves and install ones they don’t want or like.