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The climate law offers rich benefits for clean energy. Do people know about them?

The climate law offers rich benefits for clean energy. Do people know about them?
(Photo courtesy Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash)

Americans now have access to unprecedented benefits for clean energy adoption under the landmark climate and clean energy legislation passed and signed into law in 2022. But are they taking advantage?

Nonprofit Civic Nation and the U.S. Department of Energy are launching the Save On Clean Energy campaign, which aims to educate consumers and community leaders about incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), such as rebates and tax incentives available for upgrades like heat pumps, battery storage, and solar panels – many of which a large portion of Americans are not aware of.

“Right now, many consumers don’t know how to take advantage of these historic incentives,” Civic Nation CEO Kyle Lierman said. “We want to make sure that homeowners, renters and community institutions like schools, hospitals, and houses of worship understand how they can save.”

The campaign will launch a clean energy savings resource hub, aggregating tools to help consumers and community leaders learn about available incentives, and host briefings and workshops.

Is this thing on?

It’s been almost two years since the IRA was passed, but most Americans say they don’t know enough about the law even to assess whether it was a success, according to a recent survey conducted by the AP-NORC Center.

Only a quarter of surveyed adults say they’ve benefitted from tax credits to add solar panels to their homes, tax credits for renewable projects, or incentives for companies to manufacture clean energy technologies, the AP-NORC Center said. Even fewer said they’ve benefitted from tax credits for electric vehicles, or federal funding for clean energy projects in low-income communities. Around 4 in 10 surveyed said they didn’t know enough to have an opinion on the specific provisions.

Overall, more adults believe the IRA will help to address climate change than those who believe it will hurt, but an even higher percentage says they don’t know enough about the topic to say whether it was benefitted people like themselves.