Earth Day Festival will feature array of energy savings programs
Did you know you can get up to $10,500 in state and federal tax incentives off the price of a new or used electric vehicle? Or that the Inflation Reduction Act offers thousands in rebates for two-way heat pumps, which both heat and cool your home and are more efficient than AC and gas heaters?
There are thousands of dollars more available to help you insulate your home, get new doors and windows, buy energy-efficient appliances, install solar panels and more — all while helping the climate and cleaning up the air we breathe.
It can be hard to know what’s available and how to take advantage. That’s why we’re inviting you to the Earth Day Festival at Balloon Fiesta Park on April 21, so we can walk you through it.
The Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, 350NM and many other partners are working to help you navigate which technologies make the most sense for where you live, and which state and federal benefits can be combined to the best advantage for your household budget. We’ll help you customize your savings plan.
Thanks to the federal Inflation Reduction Act, signed by President Joe Biden in August 2022, there are millions of dollars available to New Mexicans to help make it affordable to switch to cleaner technologies and reduce climate pollution.
State credits and rebates can be used on top of many of these incentives to help middleand lower-income families access these efficient and money-saving technologies.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and state legislative leaders deserve a huge thank-you for working together to pass a state electric vehicle tax credits, expand rooftop solar benefits and incentivize groundsource heat pumps, which are in addition to credit available for residential installation of energy-efficient products through the New Mexico Sustainable Buildings Tax Credit and utility rebates.
Here’s an outline of benefits:
For an electric vehicle you can receive up to $7,500 from the federal government off a new car, with an additional $3,000 from the state. For a used car, state and federal credits add up to $6,500. Depending on your income, PNM offers up to $2,500 for home EV chargers and installation, and the state is offering an additional $500. For many chargers, that covers the entire cost.
For solar panels you can get 30% of the project price back in federal rebates and an additional 10% from the state. It’s also worth knowing that if you bought panels in the last couple of years and you didn’t get the state credit because it ran out, the New Mexico Legislature has authorized money to pay you back.
If your house, like mine, is drafty and your heating and cooling is leaking out, there are tax credits for insulation, sealing your house and replacing doors and windows.
Rebates for appliances like induction cooktops, heat-pump water heaters and heating/cooling are also all available.
Tax credits on all of these items are available now, but if you are lower income the state government will soon be able to pay for these items for you directly. New Mexico was one of the first states to apply for these rebate funds and will let you know as soon as they launch.
The climate crisis is already making our lives harder, from increasingly destructive wildfires to irritating allergies, from killer drought and lower agriculture yields to armies of mosquitos.
But together, we can make a huge difference — one car, one home, one neighborhood, one town, one state, one country at a time.
Take the next step in protecting our families’ futures by coming to Earth Day Festival NM on April 21. Bring your friends and family.
For more information and to get your ticket, go to: earthdayfestivalnm.com and make sure to sign up for your free electrification plan.