President Joe Biden is persuading Democrats in Congress to allocate hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change. Now comes another daunting task: persuading Americans to buy millions of electric cars, heat pumps, solar panels and more efficient appliances.
It’s a public relations challenge that could determine whether the country can meet Biden’s ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Relying on tax credits and rebates made the climate legislation — approved in August with only Democratic votes — more politically relevant than regulations forcing wholesale changes on polluting industries.
But it also means the administration’s fight against global warming will be fought “one household at a time,” said Shannon Baker-Branstetter, who works on energy issues at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank aligned with the White House.
“It’s a huge increase,” he said. “So it requires a very sophisticated communication strategy.”
Biden acknowledged those obstacles during a recent Cabinet meeting when he talked about the incentives available this year.
“People need to understand how they can benefit from the benefits that we’re doing. That’s what’s at the whole table here to make sure that message is clear,” he said.
The White House said it plans to work with state governments, contractors, retailers and social media influencers to get the word out. “Lowering utility bills is going to be a major driver,” said Josh Peck, a senior policy adviser on clean energy issues.
It also collaborates with Rewiring America, a nonprofit focused on ways to electrify homes and businesses, and companies like Airbnb, Redfin and Lyft. As part of the effort, Rewiring America created an online calculator that shows what credits or rebates a homeowner may be eligible for, depending on their ZIP code and income.
Buying a heat pump or installing solar panels is “a major expense line and a major opportunity for savings,” said Ari Matusiak, the group’s founder and CEO. “Therefore, it is very important to ensure that people are aware of the resources available and the benefits they can unlock to save on their energy bills.”
But the White House faces an uphill battle.
Polls show that Americans support action to slow climate change, are largely ignorant of the Inflationary Reduction Act, a major law that includes financial incentives to reduce emissions, and are skeptical about their own role in the climate crisis.
An AP-NORC poll released in September, a month after the law was signed, found that 61% of US adults said they were unaware of the law. And despite the multibillion-dollar investment in climate solutions, only a third said it would help climate change; about half said it wouldn’t make a difference.
The White House said it was not surprised by the results. The goal is to make sure consumers understand the financial benefits of energy-efficient products when they’re making important decisions about which products to buy, Peck said.
“One of the challenges here is trying to meet the consumer where they’re making that purchase decision,” he said.
A majority of US adults say they will not install solar panels or buy an electric vehicle in the next three years, according to an AP-NORC poll. Among them, at least half said that financial incentives would not influence their decision.
Homeowners are usually reluctant to replace their furnaces or water heaters until they really have to shell out money for them.
“One hot day you’re not going to be alive and it’s negative 10 (degrees) outside and you say, ‘Oh crap, I’ve got to get a furnace,'” said DR Richardson, founder of Elephant Energy, Colorado. a company that helps homeowners install electric heat pumps and other equipment. “So the biggest challenge from our perspective, and from a climate perspective, is to get people to think first about how to replace these assets.”
Most homeowners don’t know what equipment qualifies for rebates or tax credits — and even contractors don’t, Richardson said. While some heat pumps qualify for a full rebate, others do not or only qualify for a partial rebate.
“So it’s just a nightmare if you’re not used to working with spreadsheets to analyze and understand all these things,” he said.
Not all incentives are ready. While people can get tax breaks on the cost of electric cars, solar panels or heat pumps, rebates for low- and middle-income Americans trying to make their homes more energy efficient are not yet available. The Department of Energy is still developing a system to distribute the money.
Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council in the Obama administration, said she learned in her tenure how important it is for the government to invest in policy delivery.
“Too often we as advocates and policy makers applaud when policies are implemented and then stop paying attention,” he said. Instead, they must devise ways to target people directly to help them “understand the steps they can take and the way the government will take them.”
The Department of Energy has begun releasing information to states about a $9 billion allocation to support household energy upgrades, including weatherization and installing heat pumps.
And Biden, a self-described “car guy,” has done his part to promote electric vehicles, appearing at the Detroit auto show in September and on the TV series “Jay Leno’s Garage.”
Donnel Baird, founder and CEO of BlocPower, a Brooklyn, NY-based company that partners with utilities, government agencies and building owners to improve energy efficiency, has worked with Lowe’s and other retailers to promote green appliances.
The idea, Baird said, is that “the checkout guy says, ‘You know, you can get a tax credit if you don’t get a gas lawn mower and get a green one.'” Ati tax credits and other benefits of the climate law will become more known.
“It took years for the ACA,” he said, referring to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. “I think the same thing could happen with this law.”
Dan Pfeiffer, a former top communications adviser to President Barack Obama, sees another lesson in the Affordable Care Act.
“The ACA became more popular when Republicans tried to repeal it,” he said, suggesting that Biden take advantage of Republican efforts to return it to the Inflation Reduction Act to draw more attention to the law’s benefits.
“I have no doubt the White House has thought this all through,” Pfeifer said. But the problem is nothing is easy.”
He added: “Most of the work starts now.”