(Washington, D.C.) Have you ever considered whether the greenhouse gases your gas stove emits somehow disproportionately impact the low-income Somali community in Minnesota? Well, the government has, and their findings might just affect if you are allowed to use that trusty kitchen appliance ever again.

Documents obtained by the government watchdog, Functional Government Initiative, revealed that during the Biden era, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) considered how it could incorporate progressive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) elements in its regulations of household appliances,

The documents in question included multiple sets of DOE proposals emailed between various department officials in January 2024 that detailed the DOE’s “energy conservation standards” regarding “consumer conventional cooking products.” Included among these products “are performance-based standards for conventional cooking tops and prescriptive standards for conventional ovens.”

The documents refer to Executive Order 13563, signed by President Barack Obama in 2011 and reaffirmed by President Biden in his Modernizing Regulatory Review EO in 2021, and lists the multiple factors laid out that should be considered by the DOE for regulating household cooking appliances. Two of these factors are “distributive impact” and “equity,” key aspects of woke and discriminatory DEI policy that the Biden administration incorporated throughout the government.

The documents state, “In addition, Executive Order 13563, which was re-affirmed on January 21, 2021, stated that each agency must, among other things: ‘select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; distributive impacts; and equity).’” The DOE reiterated its commitment to factoring distributive impact and equity into its energy conservation regulations elsewhere.

The regulatory papers also included a footnote that cited a 2022 article titled, “Equity implications of market structure and appliance energy efficiency regulation.” The article looked at how the U.S.’s minimum efficiency standards for appliances affected low-income communities.

Further on in, the documents featured a draft agenda for the Oppenheimer Leadership Network’s workshop titled, “Imagining the Future: The Role of Our National Labs in Realizing a Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Energy Future.” The agenda and invitation to the workshop was sent to multiple DOE staffers, including former Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Alejandro Moreno. Moreno expressed interest in attending the event, which featured Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researcher Mary Ann Piette as one of its prominent speakers. The agenda’s bio for Piette described her formidable DEI experience, stating, “She has also helped shape Berkeley Lab’s culture to support inclusion, diversity, equity and accountability.”  

Roderick Law, spokesman for FGI, issued the following statement:

“These documents make it clear that the Biden administration’s obsession with discriminatory DEI policies actually shaped its regulatory policies regarding the household appliances Americans use every day. These findings, though disturbing, are not shocking for an administration that at one time considered a nationwide ban on gas stoves for the sake of mitigating climate change.”

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