• The new guidance is changing this focus, citing the Trump administration’s opposition to considering diversity, equity and inclusion in federal spending and the elimination of Biden’s Justice40 environmental justice initiative.

• The guidance also eliminates the programs’ support for shifting from oil, gas or other fossil fuels to electricity for home heating. Now, households can only get funding for heat pumps for new construction or if they already have electric heat, as opposed to the previous rules that encouraged people to switch away from fossil fuels.

• Another change is that the Department of Energy now requires households to upgrade their insulation and air sealing before using rebates for new appliances.

“It’s a very standard playbook to incentivize fossil fuel companies and provide a lifeline to them,” said Srinidhi Sampath Kumar, director of the Sierra Club’s clean heat campaign, about the limits on fuel switching. “It’s absolutely been done in bad faith.”