RE: Support Maintaining $922 million for the California Energy Commission’s Equitable Building Decarbonization Program & Support $400 million in a Climate Bond to Bolster Funding

Two years ago, the state of California committed to a climate and energy package that included comprehensive solutions for decarbonizing homes and buildings and expanding access to efficient home cooling. This historic investment made a bold statement in support of advancing environmental, economic and racial justice in California. Thanks to Governor Gavin Newsom and leadership from the Legislature, the investments promised to help reduce climate pollution, mitigate the impacts of worsening extreme heat, address historic burdens and structural inequities in working-class communities of color, spur economic growth by creating good-paying, high-road clean energy jobs, and build climate resilience in households and communities. These investments were a down payment on the state’s commitment to prioritize working-class communities in the transition to a zero-emission future, while ensuring we create a skilled and trained workforce and career opportunities to support the transition.

On behalf of a broad coalition of environmental, environmental justice, appliance manufacturers, and local governments, we are writing to request the Governor and Legislature maintain $922 million for the California Energy Commission’s Equitable Building Decarbonization (EBD) Program. The EBD Program is a first-of-its-kind program that helps low and moderate-income Californians access comprehensive home retrofits to improve indoor air quality, health, comfort, and energy affordability, all while furthering California’s climate goals. To bolster funding for this important program, we also support $400 million in a final climate bond.

The budget agreement from 2022 committed to $922 million over four years for the EBD program. We understand that the current fiscal outlook requires difficult budget decisions, but we urge the state to maintain the $922 million in General and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funding for this program given the air conditioning and other life-saving home upgrades it will offer to those most in need. Additionally, a climate bond offers another opportunity to ensure programs like EBD that prioritize environmental justice communities receive the funding they need to begin addressing the issues of extreme heat and harmful air pollution. In an effort to strengthen the program moving forward, we support any final climate bond package including at least $400 million for the EBD program.

As we look back at the recent year's changing climate and extreme weather, it is crucial to keep top of mind that moving towards clean energy will help us protect our environment and our health. This is particularly true in low-income and disadvantaged communities where exposure to emissions is not a choice. In acknowledgment of these concerns, the state committed to critical clean building targets of:

• 3 million climate-ready and climate-friendly homes by 2030

• 7 million climate-ready and climate-friendly homes by 2035

• 6 million heat pumps statewide by 2030

• At least fifty percent of the funding to achieve these goals directed toward disadvantaged communities

The EBD program is critical for meeting these ambitious targets; even with the full $922M plus federal funding, there is still an estimated gap of over 4 million heat pumps.* We must continue to invest and protect both state and federal funding for programs that make climate solutions accessible to vulnerable communities and develop a high road clean energy workforce that supports the transition. By supporting those with the least resources and the highest barriers to accessing clean energy technologies, we can provide them with the opportunity to lead in the fight for a zero-emission future.

Sincerely,

Merrian Borgeson

Director, California Climate & Energy Policy

NRDC

Jacqueline Ramirez

CA Senior Policy Associate

Building Decarbonization Coalition

Andrew Dawson

Policy Advocacy Manager

California Housing Partnership

Julia Hatton

President & CEO

Rising Sun Center for Opportunity

Fatima Abdul-Khabir

Energy Equity Program Manager

The Greenlining Institute

Jessica Guadalupe Tovar

Energy Democracy Director

Local Clean Energy Alliance

Elle C. Chen

Senior Policy & Campaign Manager

Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Zach Lou

Coalition Director

California Green New Deal Coalition

Jonathan Klein

CEO and Co-Founder

UndauntedK12

Laila Atalla

Senior Associate

RMI

Zach Pierce

Senior Manager, State & Local Policy

Rewiring America

Antonio Díaz

Organizational Director

PODER

Jason Wexler

SVP Policy and Technology

Gradient

Sven Thesen

Co-Founder

Project Green Home

Colleen FitzSimons

Executive Director

San Diego Green Building Council

Sean Armstrong

Managing Principal

Redwood Energy

Andrew McNamara

Principal & Co-Founder

Carbon Zero Buildings, Inc.

Gabriela Facio

Senior Policy Strategist

Sierra Club CA

Andrew Brooks

Senior Director, AEA West

Association for Energy Affordability

Dennis Murphy

Director

Sustainable Silicon Valley

Micah Perlin

Director

California Climate Voters

Chelsea Kirk

Director of Policy and Advocacy

Strategic Actions for a Just Economy

Charles Cormany

Executive Director

Efficiency First California

Debra Little

CEO

AjO

Maxwell Lubin

Partner

FutureFit Partners

Lauren Weston

Executive Director

Acterra: Action for a Healthy Planet

Shayna Hirshfield-Gold

Climate Program Manager

City of Oakland

Robert Whitehair

Co-Leader

San Mateo Climate Action Team

Katie Van Dyke

Chief Resilience Officer

City of Berkeley

Laura Neish

Executive Director

350 Bay Area Action

Leslie Alden

Executive Director

Act Now Bay Area

Catalina Gonzalez

Policy Analyst

Center for Progressive Reform

Angela Evans

Director

Menlo Spark

Cheryl Weiden

Member, Steering Committee

350 Silicon Valley

Ann Feeney

Building Electrification Team Co-chair

San Diego 350

Geoff Crook

Director, West State Policy

Ceres

Jenna Tatum

Executive Director

Building Electrification Institute

Rocky Fernandez

Director of Government Affairs

Center for Sustainable Energy

Linda Hutchins-Knowles

Co-Founder and Team Coordinator

Mothers Out Front Silicon Valley

Stephanie Chen

Director of Legislative Affairs

MCE

Serena Pelka

Policy Advocate

Climate Action Campaign

Michael Psihoules

National Energy Solutions Manager

Fujitsu General America

Dana Fischer

Director, Regulatory Strategy

Mitsubishi Electric Trane HVAC US

Sarah Hubbard

Executive Director

Sustainable San Mateo County

Ben Stapleton

Executive Director

USGBC-Los Angeles

Karen Meyers

Vice President, Government Affairs

Rheem Manufacturing Company

Fernando Gaytan

Senior Attorney

Earthjustice

Craig Perkins

President & Executive Director

The Energy Coalition

Grecia Orozco

Staff Attorney

Center on Race, Poverty, & the Environment

Olivia Seideman

Climate Policy Coordinator

Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability

Katie Valenzuela

Senior Policy Advocate

Central Valley Air Quality Coalition (CVAQ)

Kevin D Hamilton

Senior Director of Government and Public Policy and Advocacy

Central California Asthma Collaborative

Edgar Barraza

Energy Equity Policy Coordinator

Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles

Robert M. Gould, MD

President

San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility

Joshua Greene

Vice President, Government, Regulatory, Industry Affairs

A. O. Smith

Laura Fernandez

Director of Regulatory and Legislative Affairs

San Diego Community Power

David Kim

Sr. Manager of NA Policy & Product Regulation

LG Electronics USA, Inc.

*With all funds, there is still a 4.2 million heat pump gap. According to an analysis by SoCal Edison, pre-IRA, SoCal Edison estimated a 4.3M heat pump gap in this report. IRA funding to CA is only about $582M, so assuming $5k per heat pump (which is a conservative estimate), that's only an additional 116,400 heat pumps, so still about a 4.2M statewide gap compared to the 2030 goal of 6 million heat pumps.