President Biden’s disastrous economic policies have already made it harder for Ohioans to put food on the table, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for this administration. Now, Biden’s bureaucrats want to keep you from cooking in the first place.

Last week, a Biden official at the Consumer Products Safety Commission revealed that he was considering every option available to regulate gas-powered stoves ä even banning them outright.

That would be catastrophic for the two-in-five Ohio households and thousands of Ohio restaurants that use gas-powered stovetops. Home cooks and local restaurants prefer gas burners for a simple reason: some of us find them better to cook with and cheaper to operate. Ohioans have suffered from inflation and rising energy costs long enough and should not be forced to choose more expensive and less effective alternatives to feed ourselves and our families. But that’s exactly what the Biden administration intends to do.

Biden officials allege that our gas-powered appliances pose a “hidden hazard,” citing a flawed study that links gas stovetops to children’s asthma. The research may have grabbed headlines, but it never tested the appliance in the real world or considered other factors. In fact, the largest analysis of the issue found no link whatsoever. The only thing hidden about the alleged hazard is the evidence for it.

Fortunately, the Biden administration was caught in the act this time. After a public outcry, the commission was forced to walk back its statements, pledging that it was “not looking to ban gas stoves.”

I wish I could believe them, but given the Commission’s callous indifference to the needs of everyday Ohioans and this administration’s reckless campaign against Ohio energy, I simply cannot. Nor can we afford to let them off the hook for it.

That’s why I wrote to the Commission myself and urged them to reevaluate the evidence and renounce any consideration of a potential ban.

Let’s be honest about what the Biden administration is doing: imposing the Green New Deal by any means necessary. If the American people’s elected representatives won’t vote to shut off American fossil fuels, then President Biden will empower unelected bureaucrats to do it instead.

We’ve already seen what this administration has done to restrict the supply of natural gas and cripple our energy sector. President Biden has canceled the Keystone XL pipeline. He has suspended new drilling on federal lands. His regulators even want to prohibit new pipelines in the name of “environmental justice.” This open war on fossil fuels threatens to destroy a critical industry that’s brought nearly 200,000 jobs and $100 billion in investment to the state of Ohio in the last decade. The damages wrought from their disastrous policies are not limited to the energy industry. President Biden’s war on American energy also undermines our domestic manufacturers and farmers who depend on cheap and abundant energy to be competitive.

Biden’s anti-energy policies aren’t just costly for Ohio and American industry; they are bound to backfire. As I said during a visit to the Mahoning Valley last year, restricting natural gas won’t create a cleaner environment. It will fuel China’s economy ä the dirtiest in the world. If you want to make our environment cleaner, the way to do it is to invest in Ohio natural gas.

I will not be fooled by this administration’s attempt to cover up its campaign against our energy industry, nor will the working-class Ohioans who sent me to the United States Senate to represent them. Biden’s gas stove ban is on the back-burner for now, but the fight to stop reckless climate policies and unleash Ohio’s energy industry continues.

J.D. Vance is a U.S. Senator from Ohio.