“Republicans are prone to conspiracy theories, like this administration’s coming to take away your gas stoves,” mocked one media pundit recently.

“This is absolutely a manufactured distraction,” derided another. According to a third, “The Republican Party has become addicted to this culture of lies and conspiracy theories.”

New York Senator Chuck Schumer called a stove ban a myth peddled by “shameless and desperate MAGA Republicans.” He later added, “Nobody is taking away your gas stove.”

Do you know the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth?

About three months.

Back in January, we warned about an idea being batted around by Joe Biden’s administration to effectively ban gas stoves via regulations related to supposed safety considerations. The administration very publicly tried to back off, but the next scheme was to come in through the back door via regulations that would make it much harder for manufacturers to produce the stoves we’re all accustomed to. We’ll see where that goes.

It’s true that the Biden administration hasn’t (yet) actually done anything to ban gas stoves. Many Democrat-run cities have, though, and Schumer’s New York just became the first state to do so. Not just stoves, either, but all fossil fuels (natural gas, heating oil, and propane) in new buildings.

By 2026, buildings shorter than seven stories will be required to have all-electric heating and cooking. Taller buildings have until 2029. Renovations are exempt, as are restaurants, hospitals, and manufacturing facilities, though by design the ban will make it far more expensive, perhaps prohibitively so, to use fossil fuels in New York.

And just like that, the media shifted from mocking conspiracy theories to championing New York’s law as ushering in salvation from climate change.

The Washington Post’s coverage isn’t the story here, but we’ll give just a smattering of the biased lines from its story on the subject. It’s “a move that could help reshape how Americans heat and cook in their homes in the coming decades.” It’s a “milestone in the energy transition sought by climate activists.” New York Democrats bravely “decided to press ahead, despite the partisan warfare.”

Come on, man.

So, back to the media mockery at the opening. No, this isn’t a nationwide ban, but as the Post’s story makes abundantly clear, “climate activists” — the people we call ecofascists — make no bones about the fact that their aim is a national ban. Sure, they may be working small now, focusing on seemingly minor manufacturing regulations or enacting bans in cities, counties, and states, but that’s all just the beachhead for the complete invasion.

“We do have to transition,” explained Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul. “This is where our nation has to go eventually.”

If there’s one thing that never changes about ecofascists and their fellow Marxist travelers, it’s that there’s no such thing as enough “progress.”

Such “progress” is also why New York and California lost so many residents in recent years that they lost $90 billion in tax revenue during the pandemic. Neither state is done driving people away.

Speaking of California, the LA Times editorial board lamented that New York beat California to the punch: “We admit feeling a tinge of jealousy that California wasn’t the first.” Moreover, the Times argues, “To continue carrying the mantle of climate leadership, and protect the planet and public health, California needs to get serious about building electrification and join New York in drawing the line against new gas appliances and infrastructure.”

Strangely, the word “blackout” did not appear in the Times editorial, despite the fact that California’s electric grid is already totally overwhelmed by demand, and that’s before the Democrats’ electric vehicle mandate and without enacting the shiny new electric heat and appliance mandate the Times pines for.

Yet that’s the whole rub. The ecofascists’ green new dream is a world powered by windmills and solar panels. Such power sources are inherently unreliable, however, because the wind doesn’t always sufficiently blow, and the sun goes down every evening or is obstructed by clouds. Storage of that power for consistent deployment is not always possible. That’s all perhaps oversimplified, but we still need two power sources the Left either hates or ignores: fossil fuels and nuclear.

Instead, we’re headed for inferior heating and cooking, as well as rationing power and other similar save-the-planet measures — for your own good, of course.