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Congress Designed Programs to Save Energy and Lower Bills — Changes Will Hurt Struggling Americans
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the Department of Energy issued guidance that will create confusion, make it significantly harder for households to access funds to upgrade polluting or inefficient appliances, and disrupt programs already approved and underway in multiple states.
The new guidance prohibits households from using rebate funds to replace old, polluting fossil fuel-fired appliances, such as gas furnaces, with efficient electric alternatives like heat pumps. Instead, the rebates will only be allowed for electric-to-electric appliance changes. In addition to violating the law that established this program, this guidance directly undermines the program’s purpose: switching from a gas furnace to an efficient heat pump is often one of the highest-impact, highest-savings upgrades a household can make.
Other changes to the guidance that will make these programs weaker include making ENERGY STAR optional in states and removing important oversight steps intended to protect consumers.
