Harris campaign poaches aide from climate group tied to anti-gas stoves push
A former staffer for a climate group behind efforts to ban gas stoves has landed a new role as “climate engagement director” for Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign.
The Harris campaign has brought on Camila Thorndike, a self-styled “climate hype girl for democracy” who worked for two years at Rewiring America, Thorndike announced on social media this week. Rewiring America, an environmental group connected to a massive left-wing dark money network, has faced scrutiny from Republicans ever since one of its researchers, Talor Gruenwald, co-authored a study linking gas stoves to childhood asthma, the Washington Examiner reported.
The study gained influence among progressives and was promoted on social media by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. It was funded by a group called the Rocky Mountain Institute, the leader of which scored a meeting with Granholm, documents show. Subsequently, a commissioner on a federal consumer safety body said the group was mulling a gas stove ban, and Granholm’s Energy Department introduced a federal gas stove efficiency rule expected to go into effect in 2028.
The latest iteration of the DOE rule is less stringent on gas stoves than a prior version, requiring “modest improvements” to some models to increase energy efficiency, according to the DOE. Still, restrictions on gas stoves have been polled as unpopular, and Republican attorneys general and energy advocacy groups argue the proposal is a free market overreach.
“Though anonymous campaign staffers have claimed Harris has reversed her green positions on everything from fracking to plastic straw bans, the candidate herself has said nothing,” said Daniel Turner, founder and executive director of Power the Future, an energy advocacy group.
