The Biden administration is deploying roughly $85 million to boost production of a green appliance despite plummeting consumer demand, according to a Wednesday press release from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The White House on Wednesday announced nearly $85 million in grants for four producers of electric heat pumps, the DOE wrote in a statement. The announcement comes despite cratering demand for the electric appliance, with total U.S. shipments of the product falling 16% in 2023 despite the federal tax credit being raised from $300 to $2,000 in January 2023, according to a study from the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda is manufacturing hundreds of thousands of energy-saving heat pumps here in the USA, helping American households and businesses keep money in their pockets,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in the release.
Heat pumps cost an average of $10,750 to install, as opposed to an average cost of $4,700 for a new furnace in 2024, according to Forbes. Heat pumps have also become significantly less cost-effective to operate, with average U.S. residential electricity prices rising 6.2% in 2023, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Meanwhile, natural gas prices have plummeted more than 70% in the past two years from nearly $9/MMBtu in August 2022 to record lows of under $2/MMBtu in 2024, the EIA reported.
The $85 million in grants are the second round of funding the Biden administration has provided to heat pump manufacturing, with the administration unleashing $169 million to subsidize nine projects in November 2023.
“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, the United States is supercharging U.S. clean energy manufacturing, which is creating good-paying jobs, lowering families’ energy costs, and helping tackle the climate crisis, all while boosting our nation’s energy security,” White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said in the DOE press release.
In February, the Biden administration finalized regulations increasing minimum water and energy efficiency levels for residential washers and dryers. Meanwhile, in April, the White House enacted a rule banning gas stoves and appliances in federal buildings.
Biden’s regulatory blitz on appliances is expected to increase expenses for the average American home by more than $9,000.
President Joe Biden is using his “wartime emergency powers” authorized under the Defense Production Act, in conjunction with the Inflation Reduction Act, to unleash the taxpayer dollars needed to fund the heat pump projects.
“[Using] Defense Production Act funds for heat pump manufacturing show[s] that President Biden is treating climate change as the crisis it is,” John Podesta, senior advisor to the president for clean energy innovation and implementation, said of the first round of funding in November 2023.
The DOE did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Featured image credit: Official White House Photo by David Lienemann.
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