Your electric stove is 3.4 times more likely to cause a deadly home fire than a gas one. That’s an attention-grabbing first sentence. So is “your gas stove can make you and your children sick,” the first sentence in a recent news article on OregonLive (“Gas stoves are hazardous to your health, Multnomah County report says,” Nov. 10).
Of those two sentences, only one is supported by conclusive data - the first one.
The Multnomah County report should be subject to scrutiny and its findings challenged. Instead, its conclusions become headlines and soundbites; part of a public relations campaign aimed at persuading the public to accept bans on gas hookups and appliances.
In another recent study, GTI Energy concludes that cooking on an electric range may have a greater adverse impact on indoor air quality than cooking on a gas one. As with the Multnomah study, further research is needed.
That eye-opening stat about fire deaths comes from an objective study of fire data by the National Fire Protection Agency. Missing from that report is any suggestion that electric stoves be banned, and rightly so.
Low-carbon fuels like natural gas and propane and an increasing array of ultra-low carbon renewable fuels such as renewable propane can help decarbonize communities while alleviating strain on an overburdened electric grid.
We should focus more on that story and take each story about an agenda-driven study with a grain of salt.
Tucker Perkins and Matt Solak
Perkins is president and chief executive of Propane Education & Research Council. Solak is executive director of Pacific Propane Gas Association.
To read more letters to the editor, go to oregonlive.com/opinion.