Cash Back for Replacing a Gas Stove With Electric? Not Anymore. (New York Times)
The Energy Department has issued new guidance that could prevent people from receiving rebates for replacing gas appliances with electric ones.
The guidance, which took effect on Friday, would prevent states from offering rebates to people who buy an electric stove to replace a gas range. It would also end rebates for similar swaps of ovens, dryers, heat pumps and water heaters.
It was the latest move by the Trump administration to roll back a signature Biden-era climate policy. In an effort to reduce planet-warming emissions, the Biden administration had encouraged Americans to replace gas-powered cars, stoves and other technologies that burn fossil fuels with less-polluting electric models.
The new guidance would affect roughly $8.8 billion in federal funding that Congress approved for two different home rebate programs as part of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The first program provides potentially thousands of dollars in rebates to upgrade space heaters, water heaters, cooling and insulation, with greater incentives available to families making less than 80 percent of the median income in their area.
The second program, focused on electrification, provides rebates to families making less than 150 percent of the local median income. These can be worth up to $8,000 for an electric heat pump, $1,750 for a heat pump water heater and $840 for an induction stove.
States are responsible for distributing these rebates, and 12 states and the District of Columbia have already established programs. But when President Trump returned to office in January 2025, the Energy Department halted approvals of additional state programs as part of a broader freeze to review Biden-era policies.
That money is now flowing again, but the agency is making several key changes.
The biggest shift is that states can no longer use the funds for “fuel switching,” where people replace gas-burning furnaces or stoves with electric heat pumps or induction ranges. Households can, however, get rebates for upgrading existing electric appliances with more efficient models, for example by swapping an older resistance heater with a heat pump.
