President Biden and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced DOE is accepting applications from states, Tribes, and territories for $3.16 billion in new funding through the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) – DOE’s largest residential energy retrofit program. This expanded funding, which is enabled by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will allow states to retrofit thousands of low-incomes homes to make them healthier and more energy efficient while lowering utility bills. WAP retrofit funding is designed to address the “whole home” including installing insulation, updating heating and cooling systems, upgrading electrical appliances, and taking other common-sense actions that will make homes warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer with less energy usage.
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law expands the reach of WAP to help more state, local, and tribal governments reduce household energy use – saving consumers money, reducing emissions, and improving the health and safety of homes in communities that are disproportionally impacted by high energy costs. The program furthers President’s Biden efforts to lower costs for families while growing an equitable clean energy economy on our path to a net zero emissions economy by 2050. The program also implements the President’s Justice40 commitment, which aims to ensure that federal agencies deliver at least 40% of benefits from certain investments to disadvantaged communities.
“Home energy retrofits and upgrades – like electrification, heat pumps, LED lighting, insulation, and sealing up leaks – can slash monthly energy bills for families and improve the air we breathe,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Thanks to the transformative investments in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we will be able to help households in disadvantaged communities, reduce carbon emissions, and generate good-paying local jobs in every corner of America.”
Since 1976, WAP has served over seven million households and delivered an average of $372 in annual energy savings for American families. Today’s funding announcement will transform the WAP program by expanding weatherization services to ten times current funding levels, creating jobs, and reestablishing economic opportunities in communities that have been hit the hardest by economic, racial, and environmental injustices. In addition to creating more energy-efficient homes, weatherization investments make homes more resilient to climate change, help create good-paying jobs, reduce energy costs, and support cleaner air and public health.
For more information about this effort, visit the WAP website and sign-up for news announcements to keep up to date with the latest information and resources. See the WAP state-by-state funding table here.
