Heat pumps take heat from outside and pump it into the home when it’s cold out, and they remove heat from the home when it’s warm. It’s not a new technology, but with widespread adoption it has the potential to cut down radically on home heating oil and natural gas, significantly reducing carbon emissions.
That phrase is key: “with widespread adoption.” As Joan Fitzgerald reports in
our latest issue on implementing the Biden agenda, there are a lot of hurdles to heat pumps becoming the standard in America: local regulations, an inadequate workforce of installers, confusing and often insufficient rebate programs, electric grid improvement as usage rises, and that old standby, supply chain disruptions. One state has navigated these hurdles, Fitzgerald writes: Maine, where one administrative agency coordinates all of the policy supports, including making the rebate systems easy to use. The state has ensured that ratepayers
won’t bear the burden of improving the grid, and doubled the number of installation companies since 2015. It’s an example of implementation done right.
This story is part of our February 2023 print issue on implementing the Biden agenda. You can read all the stories in this series as they are released at prospect.org/implementation.
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