Blogs

It’s been a historic week—for us here at the Building Performance Association (BPA) and for the American public. For more than a decade, many of us at BPA have been working hard to get the policies embedded in the HOPE for HOMES Act into law. From grassroots letters of support to zoom lobby days to watching HOPE for HOMES get included in the most recent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it’s been a long journey. And, it’s a journey that will continue. We couldn’t have made this journey without our members, supporters, stakeholders, allies, and everyone in this industry who signed our support letters, attended a lobby day, and told their friends to speak up in ...

Yesterday afternoon, President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) into law. This landmark legislation contains nearly $370 billion in clean energy tax credits and spending – and, thanks to advocacy from Building Performance Association members, stakeholders, and contractors, IRA includes $9 billion in consumer rebates for energy efficiency and electrification. This home performance funding features $200 million for energy efficiency and electrification workforce training and $4.3 billion for comprehensive home energy retrofit rebates—provisions that, together, make up the HOPE for HOMES Act. The law also includes $4.5 billion for point-of-sale rebates ...

On Monday, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was joined by Congressman Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson as well as Maryland homeowners, workers, healthy housing and climate advocates, and state and local officials in Baltimore to highlight the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and key provisions the Senator secured from his HOPE for HOMES legislation, which will help homeowners make energy efficiency upgrades to their homes and cut their monthly energy costs. During the event, the Senator discussed how these provisions will stimulate the energy efficiency market to create jobs ...

By Macie Melendez It's official: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Next, the bill will end up on President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law. The White House says the roughly $700 billion package will address inflation in two ways: by lowering energy and health care costs for families and by helping to bring down the deficit. So, let’s answer the question you all have: How does this affect me and my business? The historic investments included in the IRA will do three things related to energy: (1) lower consumer energy costs, (2) increase energy security, and (3) reduce greenhouse ...

by Charles Cormany We, at Efficiency First California, have been doing a lot of outreach to contractors lately. Our goal is to find out what their pain points are and determine if there is something we, as a contractor organization, can do to help. After scores of conversations, we continue to hear the same feedback. Contractors are struggling with supply chain issues and are having difficulty finding and keeping good workers. Two years after COVID-19 hit the world, the global supply chain is slowly recovering, but the workforce issue remains. The trades have been facing workforce challenges since for over a decade, long before COVID threw a ...

BPA tracks the latest policy updates and legislative issues in many states across the nation. They've made it easier to read the monthly state policy updates by segmenting out details state by state on their website here . BPA has also created a letter for you to send to your elected representatives and let them know you want them to support ongoing energy efficiency legislation, programs, and initiatives in your home state. Click here to send your personalized letter. Below are key highlights for August. Key State Highlights In Pennsylvania , $125 million in Federal COVID-relief funding was approved in the annual budget to fund the ...