President Joe Biden mostly backed down from his threat to gas stoves, but that does not mean it, or his impulse to control people’s everyday lives, wasn’t real.

Biden’s Energy Department went ahead with a watered-down version of the regulations it had been floating for kitchen appliances, finalizing rules that would affect only 3% of gas stoves and 23% of electric stoves on the market. Democrats and their media allies are now trying to paint the GOP concern about the previous rules as crazy and unfounded because the new rule isn’t as severe.