Trump’s Illegal Home Rebate Guidance Keeps Families Hooked on Gas While Fueling Utility Profits

Contact: Seth Nelson

The Department of Energy today quietly released long-awaited guidance on several home rebate programs created by the Inflation Reduction Act, including the Home Electrification and Appliances Rebate program—also known as the High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate program—in a move that would effectively gut the initiative. The guidance prohibits fuel switching, meaning households could no longer use the rebates to replace gas appliances with efficient electric ones, despite Congress specifically designing the program to expand consumer choice and give households flexibility in replacing old, inefficient appliances. 

The guidance would block the vast majority of upgrades the program was designed to fund, locking millions of low-income households out of the most impactful cost-saving improvements available to them. It arrives more than a year after the administration illegally froze funding for the program, depriving households across the country of billions of dollars in funding to lower their energy bills. 

In response, Evergreen Action Deputy Policy Director for Buildings Tony Sirna released the following statement:

“Congress designed this program specifically to help working families switch from expensive, inefficient gas appliances to highly efficient electric ones—cutting their energy bills and breaking dependence on fossil fuels. After more than a year of illegally withholding funding, the Trump administration is now trying to sabotage the program entirely by issuing guidance that flatly contradicts the law. This is a deliberate effort to deny relief to millions of families at the exact moment they need it the most. 

“Residential gas bills increased twice as fast as electricity bills and four times the rate of inflation in Trump’s first year in office. That’s no accident—it’s the result of utilities more than doubling their pipeline spending over the last decade, not because demand is rising, but because they earn a guaranteed profit on every pipe they lay. This administration’s answer to that crisis is to lock low-income families out of the very upgrades that would free them from those skyrocketing bills.

“Make no mistake: this is part of a coordinated strategy to boost fossil fuel profits at the expense of working families. Trump and his allies have made it clear they will disregard the law to pursue that agenda. These home electrification rebates were a lifeline for families who otherwise could not afford to upgrade their homes and escape rising energy costs. Gutting them ensures millions of households remain captive customers of greedy gas utilities now poised to saddle ratepayers with up to $1.4 trillion in costs for pipelines that will ultimately be underused or entirely unnecessary. Trump is, once again, manufacturing an energy cost crisis for working families so his fossil fuel donors can keep cashing in. It’s illegal, it’s indefensible, and it will be challenged in court.”

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