A New Haven program designed to help lower income families switch their homes from oil heating to high-efficiency electric heat pumps was halted after federal funding was revoked.
Electrify New Haven relied on $1 million in federal support, which was rescinded in late March, according to Steve Winter, the executive director of New Haven’s Office of Climate and Sustainability.
“We're helping residents who need it most, lower their energy bills and improve their local and indoor air quality,” Winter said. “This helps broaden the pool of people who can benefit from these heating system conversions and lowers the costs for those who can participate.”
President Donald Trump’s administration wants to do away with the program, even though it helps bring down energy costs and improve air quality, according to Winter.
“The current administration picks words and phrases that they don't like and and will target a program no matter how strong it is on the merits, because it includes phrases like environmental justice or not, not in our case, but in other cases, diversity or equity,” Winter said.
The federal funding was meant to supplement state funds, but the city was forced to issue “stop work orders” for program partners who were enrolling residents. The program hadn’t gotten to the point of heat pump replacements before the money was revoked.
“In this case, the plan was, and is, to layer on federal funds on top of the state programs to help residents complete improvements at as low a cost as possible, or ideally, no cost,” Winter said. “This will constrict the ability of the city to bring in more families and help more people lower their energy bills and improve their local air quality.”
Following the funds’ revocation, New Haven joined five other cities and a dozen climate-focused nonprofits in a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over its access to federal funding already allocated to address clean energy and climate change.
“It is wrong for cities and organizations to have to be left holding the bank when we have a federal government that, with a binding partnership, is turning their back on our cities,” New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said recently of the lawsuit.
