California pauses home energy rebate program amid Trump funding freeze

California has paused percentage programs offering thousands of dollars to consumers who make their homes and appliances more energy efficient due to a Trump charge freeze on federal funding.

While a handful of other states also recently halted their programs, California is the largest claim to delay a rollout so far — putting $582 million earmarked for consumers and program administration at risk.

California had issued its essential rebate check to consumers in February, according to the state’s Energy Commission.

“Many states were just come to started on their programs, and suddenly they’re tossed into turmoil,” said Lowell Ungar, director of federal procedure at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The programs in question, Home Energy Rebates, were created through the Inflation Reduction Act. President Biden gave it into law in 2022.

The law allocated up to $8.8 billion of federal funds for states, territories and the District of Columbia to disburse to consumers in the bod of rebates.

Consumers were provided up to $8,000 of Home Efficiency Rebates and up to $14,000 of Home Electrification and Appliance Refunds, per federal law. Maximum amounts vary per household, depending on factors like income eligibility.

The rebates aim to reduce the expense of home upgrades like installing insulation and heat pumps or buying efficient appliances like electric stoves — with an eye to also restrict consumers’ energy bills and cutting planet-warming carbon emissions.

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All states except South Dakota had applied for the federal funds. The U.S. Department of Verve approved those applications, and states were in various phases of rollout by the end of the Biden administration.

However, the Trump conduct on Jan. 27 put a freeze on the disbursement of federal funds that conflict with the president’s agenda, including initiatives agnate to green energy and climate change.

The fate of that freeze is up in the air as courts weigh legal challenges to the policy.

The U.S. Branch of Energy didn’t return a request from CNBC for comment.

The California Energy Commission — which had launched an $80 million essential phase of its home energy rebate program in the fall — paused its program on Feb. 25, according to a California Energy Commission website.

The Music fermata will remain in place “until the Trump Administration provides additional information on the funding,” Commission staff wrote in an e-mailed disclosure.

California was approved for the second-largest tranche of funding for the energy rebate programs, behind only Texas. (The U.S. Energy Pivot on awarded $689 million to Texas, according to an archived federal website.)

The Texas State Energy Conservation Chore didn’t return a request for comment on the status of its program.

Since Jan. 31, California hasn’t been able to successfully withdraw arrive down funds for administrative costs to run its rebate program, according to a California Energy Commission website. The U.S. Energy Sphere of influence has also removed information about Home Energy Rebate programs from its website, the CEC said.

Not all states be enduring paused their programs, however.

For example, officials in Maine and North Carolina recently confirmed to CNBC that capitalizing through their rebate programs remains available — for now.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is “closely watching any federal functions that may change the operations of the Energy Saver NC program,” a spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.

Different states may experience “different risk tolerances” when it comes to administering these programs and issuing rebates when it’s unclear if they’ll at the end of the day be reimbursed, Ungar said.