Ask Best Buy to help protect us from gas stove pollution.
Induction stoves are efficient, fast, and precise. They are also safer and less harmful to indoor air quality than cooking with gas. The Inflation Reduction Act includes $4.5 billion in funding for states to provide rebates and tax credits for new electric appliances including stoves, cooktops, and wall ovens.
SIGN THE PETITION
Induction cooking is steadily winning over Marylanders as the latest and greatest in cooking technology. Efficient, precise and safe, cooking on induction stoves provides numerous benefits not just for passionate chefs and food lovers, but for the overall health and wellbeing of Maryland families.
Induction cooktops use magnetism to heat metal cookware. When you turn an induction stove or cooktop on, electric currents underneath the smooth cooking surface create a magnetic current within the cookware being used. This direct transfer of energy results in instant, efficient heating; in fact, induction cooktops heat up faster than both gas and traditional electric coil cooktops, with some models boiling a pot of water in just 2 minutes. Induction also results in unbeatable and precise control and consistent levels of heat, as the appliance responds immediately to changes in temperature by adjusting the strength of the electric currents.
Induction is great for homes in hot places, as only heating the pan means that lost heat energy won’t contribute to warming up your kitchen. It’s also safer, since there’s no open flames or hot surfaces involved, and the smooth cooking surface makes cleaning up a breeze.
Induction cooking works for all types of cuisines – whether you’re cooking with a wok, making cooktop breads like tortillas or naan, or whether you need to steam, char, sear or boil. Induction can do it all.
Switching from gas to induction cooking can improve indoor air quality. Cooking with gas can produce levels of indoor air pollution that would be illegal outdoors. According to the American Medical Association (AMA) cooking with a gas stove increases household air pollution and the risk of childhood asthma. Cooking with gas releases pollutants into our homes that can lead to the development of asthma, especially in children, and worsen symptoms for those with preexisting respiratory illnesses.
One report compared the effects of using a gas stove around kids to those of second-hand smoke exposure. Just running a gas stove for one hour can lead to unsafe pollutant levels. During the holidays, many Americans cook for far longer than one hour— with the stove and oven on for hours. An indoor air quality experiment conducted in 2018 by HomeChem found that pollution levels in a home while cooking a Thanksgiving meal briefly exceeded those of the world’s most polluted cities.
Because induction stoves are powered by electricity, they present a more sustainable alternative than gas. Electric-powered appliances have the potential to run cleaner and greener as America’s energy system is progressively powered by more renewable energy sources than ever before. Switching to induction also means homes can transition away from planet-warming methane gas as a fuel source, a necessary step in electrifying buildings and reducing emissions to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
Induction cooktops are also three times as energy efficient as gas stoves and nearly 5-10% more efficient than electric resistance. Due to the electromagnetic technology used in induction, the vast majority of the electricity consumed by an induction stove goes directly towards cooking the food. In contrast, gas stoves allow significant amounts of heat energy to escape into the atmosphere.
If every cooktop sold in the U.S. in 2021 used induction technology, American consumers would save $125 million and 1,000 gigawatt hours of electricity.
As a result, induction cooktops won the ENERGY STAR Emerging Technology Award for 2021-2022, because they meet “rigorous performance criteria to reduce energy use and lower greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Inflation Reduction Act includes $4.5 billion in funding for states to provide rebates for electric appliances including stoves, cooktops, and wall ovens (both electric and induction).
You may be eligible for a rebate of up to $840 on an electric cooking appliance and up to an additional $500 to help cover the costs of converting from gas or propane to electric. That means, depending on the model you go with, you could get a brand new induction or electric stove for as little as just a couple hundred dollars.
In addition, you may be eligible for a tax credit up to $4,000 if you need to upgrade your home’s electrical panel to accommodate electric cooking and other electric appliances, heating and cooling.
Each state will enact the exact framework, but the guidelines set out by the federal government are dependent on household income with families making 80% or less of the median household income qualifying for up to 100% of a new appliance up to $840 and those making 80%-150% of the median household income getting 50% of the cost of a new appliance.
When I learned my son had asthma, I started to worry about using our gas stove.Emily, Baltimore
Gas stoves emit health-harming pollutants into our homes, posing a significant risk to our children.
SIGN THE PETITION
Gas stoves burn methane gas, a fossil fuel that pollutes our air and poses risks to public health.
Gas stoves work by combusting methane gas, which when burned emits nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide, in addition to smaller amounts of formaldehyde and particulate matter. Methane gas is colorless, odorless and explosive, so leaks present a safety risk. A sulfur-based chemical called mercaptan has to be added to make it smell so leaks can be easily detected. While exposure to formaldehyde and particulate matter can result in nose, throat and lung irritation and aggravated asthma symptoms, the two most concerning pollutants when it comes to health are nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide.
Methane gas infrastructure has been prone to leaks, endangering communities and the environment. A gas pipeline incident occurs somewhere in the U.S. approximately every 40 hours. In fact, we know that 2,595 gas pipeline incidents occurred from 2010 to 2021 – and those are just the leaks that were reported to the federal government. The total number is much higher.
In Maryland there have been major gas explosions in communities across the state including:
While EPA estimates that the rate of leaks throughout the gas supply chain is 2-3%, studies suggest leak rates throughout the supply chain are significantly higher – high enough that they offset any greenhouse gas benefit of gas over coal.
Gas leaks reported to the federal government resulted in the release of 26.6 billion cubic feet of methane gas from 2010 through October 2021, equivalent in its effects on global warming to emissions from more than 2.4 million passenger vehicles driven for a year.
In addition, gas stoves contribute more to climate change than previously thought because many of them continuously leak methane — even when turned off.
Former Director, Environment Campaigns, PIRG