In his role with the Sierra Club’s Iowa City Chapter, Tom Carsner has spent a lot of time in recent months thinking and talking about the ways the federal government incentivizes energy efficiency.

Tax incentives intended to encourage Americans to invest in energy-efficient appliances and renewable energy, like solar panels, were part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, under the Biden administration.

But the Big Beautiful Bill Act — which Carsner refers to as the “Big Bad Bill” — that was passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump this summer, rolls back those incentives. Many are scheduled to end Dec. 31.

As political director for the Sierra Club’s Iowa City Chapter — a position he’s held for eight years — Carsner has followed the legislation that will end these incentives. He said one of the programs that will expire on Dec. 31 incentivizes residents to invest in high-efficiency appliances.

The Home Electrification and Appliance Rebate program, or “HEARS,” provides rebates to low- and moderate-income households when they purchase high-efficiency electric appliances like heat pumps, electric stoves and dryers, as well as for electrical upgrades to their homes, like installing solar panels.

Carsner said another program, which provides tax credits for electric vehicle purchases, will expire at the end of September.

The Gazette spoke with Carsner about these programs and how they might affect the state and its residents.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: How can Iowans take advantage of these programs before they go away at the end of the year?

A: It’s just contacting your appliance dealer, whether it is for a heat pump or water heater, Iowans should contact their dealers directly. That hasn’t changed; you have to contact a registered or qualified contractor to make an appointment and get set up with them.

Some things with solar panels are tightening up partially because you don’t know what the weather is going to be. It may be slower in November and December to put them in since it is outdoors. But these other ones like an electric stove, a heat pump, water heater, and other things like that can be done year-round since it’s not really weather dependent.

Q: What makes this program important, and what will the loss look like for Iowans when this program does cease at the end of the year?

A: Every wind turbine you see in the State of Iowa has been subsidized by taxpayers, to some degree, because those are all built with tax rebates. The problem is that it will make all of those attempts to build the utility-scale wind farms or solar farms that much more expensive for the companies putting them up. If it’s more expensive for them, it’s going to be more expensive for the utility as well. So, electric rates are bound to go up as well on that large utility scale basis.

There are all sorts of estimates that show many of the rebates are in the 30 percent range. It’s not necessarily a one-to-one ratio but there’s no doubt that having those large-scale rebate programs taken away, it will increase electric costs across the board for all people who use utilities, which is pretty much everybody.

Q: From your perspective, what makes programs like this such a partisan issue?

A: It’s the fossil fuel industry. Many Republicans in today’s world rely on fossil fuel campaign financing and when they vote to take away subsidies for non-fossil fuel or renewable energy type of programs, they are doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, so they get more campaign contributions. That’s the real problem.

Now, they also turn a blind-eye to the fact that fossil fuel industries have, for a century, gotten tax credits, and tax favoritism through the Internal Revenue Service, but they conveniently ignore that. It’s quite disingenuous for Republicans to vote for the “Big Bad Bill” that just passed, and then to still claim they support renewable energy. The two just don’t go together.

Q: What will the direct impact of this look like for Iowa? Will it be more significant in Iowa, rather than other Midwest states or across the country?

A: Iowa is already producing over 60 percent from clean, renewable energy, which is mostly wind, with a little bit of solar. For the consumer, the real problem is that they will end up consuming more gas when it comes to heating and cooling their home, making electricity more expensive for the consumer.

But a secondary issue is every one of these solar panels, heat pumps or water heaters are distributed by a local appliance dealer. When the rebates go away, it’s going to drive their sales down to some degree. It’s hard to predict how much, but if you think of an appliance store in a medium-sized Iowa town, and it sounds good to be able to get a rebate on an efficient hot water heater, they’ll buy it. But if rebates go away, they’re going to be less inclined to purchase the new hot water heater that’s more electrically efficient.

Q: With your role with the Iowa City Sierra Club, I’m curious, what has the Iowa City community said about this? What have you been hearing from the public?

A: I don’t think you’d have to stretch very deep to find a solar panel company who would tell you there’s a rush right now to finish projects before the end of the year. But I’m not sure how many people truly understand that this was part of the “Big, Bad Bill” of things going away at the end of the year. People might be surprised by this. When I talked to people about it, some were aware, and some were not.

Q: For those who are not as aware about this issue or this deadline that’s coming up, what have you been recommending they do?

A: They should call their dealer as soon as they can because, especially solar panel installation, it is getting increasingly busy as the end of the year comes. Appliance dealers are probably the same. It’s just a race to get a project started or get a contract signed at least by Dec. 31.

Q: Looking forward, are there opportunities for programs like these to come back for Iowans to use?

A: There’s still uncertainty. There is a state version of some of these programs. The money is less, but there’s still $120 million for a state-run program, where you can get it deducted immediately from your bill. I don’t know how much it was or wasn’t affected by the “Big, Bad Bill,” but it would soften the blow. It wasn’t created to be a replacement by any means, but it would soften the blow somewhat.

Olivia Cohen covers energy and environment for The Gazette and is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. She is also a contributing writer for the Ag and Water Desk, an independent journalism collaborative focusing on the Mississippi River Basin.

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Comments: olivia.cohen@thegazette.com