Energy Efficiency Tax Credits Helped Homeowners. They May Go Away

Supporters of tax credits to help homeowners make their houses more energy efficient were hoping the U.S. Senate would protect those credits, but they are still on the chopping block.

The Senate Finance Committee on Monday unveiled its version of legislation to extend the tax cuts of 2017.

While the Senate’s version relaxed some of the timelines for phasing out utility scale wind and solar credits, it includes a quick elimination of credits that benefit homeowners. The version approved by the House of Representatives does the same thing.

That means, if approved, credits for energy efficient appliances and heat pumps, as well as rooftop solar, will sunset within 180 days.

Ari Matusiak, co-founder, president and CEO of Rewiring America, says that would be bad for West Virginia. Thousands of residents statewide have taken advantage of those tax credits.

“West Virginia benefits disproportionately from these tax credits because the state has fewer resources that it has applied to these types of programs for people living there,” he said. “If you take this away, what you’re doing is basically shifting the burden to local families to deal with the higher energy costs.”

Encouraging people to make their homes more energy efficient or produce their own power with solar panels reduces the burden on the grid, Matusiak says, in addition to saving them money.

Electricity demand is forecast to increase in the coming years, especially to power AI and data centers. Energy efficiency and rooftop solar are ways to increase the amount of power available.

“So all of these things kind of go together, and it’s sort of in the category of a really smart investment that we should continue making, and not one that we should be taking away,” he said. “This is kind of in the category of like a no-brainer thing to keep, and I’m not sure why we would get rid of it.”

Once the Senate votes on the tax bill, the House will need to approve any changes before it goes to the president for his signature.