Serial gas stove user Stacey Abrams trolled for joining group that wants to ban them

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Stacey Abrams reveals she will 'likely' run again

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams revealed she will likely run for office again while appearing on "The Drew Barrymore Show" Monday afternoon.

Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is being called out for featuring a gas-powered stove in a campaign ad after joining an environmental group that is pushing to ban such stoves.

Rewiring America, a self-described nonprofit "focused on electrifying our homes, businesses, and communities," announced last week that Abrams, a Democrat, will join its team as senior counsel.

The group, which maintains that Americans must broadly electrify their homes in an effort to combat climate change, is also a central player in the push to regulate and ultimately eliminate natural gas-powered stoves.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and a gas stove. (Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Reading Partners | Davide Bonaldo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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However, the U.S. Oil and Gas Association noted Monday on Twitter that Abrams herself is guilty of using gas stoves, flagging one of Abrams' campaign ads from last year in which she can be seen cooking with one.

"Stacey Abrams has a new job with Rewiring America – a dark money enviro group working to ban our gas stoves," the U.S. Oil and Gas Association tweeted. "Here's a screenshot of one of her campaign commercials called 'Cooking.' That's one bad----looking gas stove all fired up and making her dinner! Game on Stacey!"

In the ad, Abrams explains that she manages to find time for cook for her family despite a busy schedule, adding that she will "bring everyone to the table" by working across the political aisle "to lift up hardworking people."

The Empowerment Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes the use of natural gas and opposes the Green New Deal, highlighted another online video in which Abrams can be seen cooking for her family with a gas stove.

"Does her new employer know how much she loves natural gas?" the group tweeted.

Twitter users were quick to jokingly chide Abrams for her gas stove use.

"With no hood vent. She's a criminal," one user quipped. "My guess is she'd say we only use it on low," wrote another. "Professional grifter," added a third person.

Others invoked the fact that Abrams, an author and a voting rights activist, has run in and lost the last two gubernatorial races in Georgia. "Well, she obviously is a better cook, than a candidate," one user tweeted. 

Several Democratic operatives recently expressed concern about Abrams attempting another run for office.

Stacey Abrams speaks to the media at the Israel Baptist Church in Atlanta as voters head to the polls during the Georgia primary on May 24, 2022. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Capitol Hill also took notice of Abrams' gas stove use — specifically Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, where Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is the ranking member.

In Abrams' new role with Rewiring America, she will "launch and scale a national awareness campaign and a network of large and small communities working to help Americans go electric," according to the group. "She will also guide the organization as it builds the tools and capacity to connect Americans and their communities to machines, installers, Inflation Reduction Act incentives, and jobs in the clean energy transition."

Rewiring America is part of a billion-dollar dark money network and has been at the center of a recent move to restrict gas stove usage. Talor Gruenwald, a research associate with the group, was listed as the lead author on a study published in December linking childhood asthma to gas stoves. The study was promoted by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and used to justify greater restrictions on the appliance.

Republicans are currently pushing legislation to counter a two-pronged effort by the Biden administration to ban gas stoves this year.

In January, a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said a ban on gas stoves was "on the table" because of the health risks they pose to consumers. However, the CPSC backed down after public outrage and ridicule. Soon thereafter, the Energy Department proposed an energy-efficiency regulation that officials acknowledge is so stringent that less than 50% of the gas stoves currently in use today would make the cut. The department has also proposed a rule called the "Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Conventional Cooking Products."

The Energy Department "proposes efficiency standards all the time — for lightbulbs, washers and dryers, refrigerators, and more," a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Does it mean they're coming to ban those appliances? Of course not. Instead, the department is building on decades-long efforts with industry to ensure our appliances work more efficiently and save Americans money."

The Biden administration and Democrat-led cities are proposing measures to ban gas stoves. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Democrat-led cities are also considering or actively implementing their own gas stove restrictions as the GOP seeks to thwart such efforts at the federal level.

"The movement to ban gas stoves or furnaces and water heaters really resonates with people because it is the environmental movement using the government to kick in our front door and make their way right into the center of our homes. It is a true invasion of our personal space," Tim Stewart, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, told Fox News Digital.

 "What makes this even more appalling is the outright hypocrisy and grift that is involved in this movement," Stewart continued. "Stacy Abrams, collecting a paycheck to tell everyone else that they are bad people if they use a gas stove, apparently goes home at the end of the day and makes dinner using – you guessed it – a fancy gas stove."

Fox News Digital also reached out to Rewiring America, asking if it found Abrams' use of gas stoves to be problematic. In its response, the group didn't mention Abrams, instead touting its own work and the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive Democrat-backed spending package signed into law last year.

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"Rewiring America's mission is to help families upgrade the machines they depend on and that make for healthier homes and lower energy bills," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "The great thing about the Inflation Reduction Act is that the tax credits available to every American are good for 10 years, so that people can modernize their homes at their own pace, replacing an old furnace with an efficient heat pump system one year while buying a used EV [electric vehicle] the next. Readers can go to our calculator to see what they're eligible for and make a home upgrade plan that works for them."

Abrams didn't respond to a request for comment for this story.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story cited an Energy Department estimate that suggested 96% of the gas stoves on the market would not meet the department's proposed energy efficiency standard. The department later provided a statement refuting that figure and a recent analysis that said "nearly half" of gas stoves on the market would meet the standard. The story has been changed to reflect these updates.