Brickbat: Cooking With Gas

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill requiring all one-pound propane gas cylinders sold in the state to be reusable or refillable starting in 2028. Campers use the portable fuel canisters for cooking, and supporters say the law will reduce litter in state parks and improve the safety of the park workers who must clean up discarded cans.

Comments

[Mockamodo]

Has any park worker ever been harmed by a discarded gas cylinder?

[Longtobefree]

Just one child - - - - - - - -

[Incunabulum]

No.

And campers don't leave their cylinders on the ground.

And where they do are in the sorts of places that park employees don't clean up anyway.

And it won't stop people from bringing them in from outside.

[B G]

I'd doubt it. The equipment that runs on the 1lb Propane canisters is on the heavy side for backpacking (the lighter weight backpack stoves use butane or isobutane that's not covered by this law), and there's no real need for people who are doing "car camping" or camping in vans/trailers/RVs to leave their empty canisters (which actually can be re-filled from 20lb tanks with the proper adapter) behind since they're not often getting far enough from a vehicle to have to carry the trash very far in order to "pack it out".

The biggest impact of this ban might be to make life more difficult for the "unhoused neighbors" in various places who might then resort to using more open cooking fires and increasing their danger of accidentally initiating wildfires.

[Brett Bellmore]

I've frequently car camped at campgrounds where the actual tent site was a mile from the parking, and we still packed out any spent cylinders. We carefully clean up the whole area when we leave.

I mean, who wouldn't? Even if you had no self respect at all, the park rangers check out the sites between campers, and know who was using each site. Leaving a mess is a good way to get on the ban list.

[Chumby]

JD Vance is wrong about cooking with gas.

[NoVaNick]

The small green Coleman cylinders do not seem to be refillable, at least where I live. This is still a stupid law though bc campers will just throw them out anyway.

[GroundTruth]

One more attack on fossil fuels, particularly in a form that someone like Newsom didn’t know existed until some greenie decided they should be banned.

[B G]

They technically aren't, but there's a connecting adapter available online, or at some sporting goods stores (I've seen them in stock at Sportsman's Warehouse) which allow for re-filling the standard green ones from a 20lb (or larger) tank. No manufacturer that I'm aware of guarantees that the operation is 100% safe, but it seems like there's some number of refills on one canister.

[Fist of Etiquette]

He should sign a law making solar panels contain no toxic substances.

[Randy Sax]

I use these. No self respecting backpacker would ever leave them in the woods.

[defaultdotxbe]

And the non-self respecting ones will likely just leave the refillable ones.

[sarcasmic]

Shoot 'em with tracers.

[Don't look at me!]

The hikers?

[Minadin]

Who is throwing away the 16oz propane cylinders? I refill mine, it's easy and cheap.

[NoVaNick]

The next step will be to ban propane bc climate change

[Minadin]

Ban blowhard politicians

[Rockstevo]

My question is does this law apply to stores on reservations? If not then easy money for them, open giant stores selling pork, cheap eggs and now camping gas cylinders. Seems to me every time they pass one of these laws just another chance for the Indians to make more money outside of casinos.

[NoVaNick]

Are pork and eggs now illegal in California?

[Johnf63]

Not illegal, but they are required to have more space for the animals, which makes them more expensive.

[Incunabulum]

The question is not 'does the law apply on the reservation'. Rather it is 'do the reservation police have the balls to stand up to the state police when the staties come raiding?'

99.999999999999% of the time the answer is 'no'.

[Ron]

idiots will still throw the little containers in the fire pit just to see them explode and throw shrapnel every where

[Chumby]

Hold my Bud Light.

[Restoring the Dream]

I think it's illegal to take refilled propane cans across state lines. This will cause people to stop selling them in CA. That may be the intent. Hello forest fires.

[emkcams]

It is illegal to take refilled propane cans of the "un-refillable" Coleman variety across state lines to sell. Or so it was several years when I researched it.

[CopaGent]

This is BS right up there with banning plastic bags and straws.
Kalifornia nanny state krap.

[Fetterman's Hump]

Plastic straws make good kindling.