Deadline Extension: Submit a Public Comment Supporting Environmental Justice and Electrification November 8, 2022

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), of all people, has issued a call for public comments on the implementation of energy provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Unfortunately, Inflation Reduction Act rebates and tax incentives for household upgrades to electric stoves, water heaters, and furnaces can also be used for fossil fuel-powered appliances.

We must ensure that these rebates and tax breaks in the Inflation Reduction Act are not protracting our fossil fuel dependence! 

Whether efficient or not, appliances powered by fossil fuels contribute to serious health effects including premature mortality, heart attacks, respiratory diseases and asthma. Prolonged usage of fossil fuels to power our stoves, water heaters, and furnaces will also continue our march toward climate devastation.

Fossil fuel appliances are especially harmful in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, where residents are three times more likely to live in an area with poor outdoor air quality, which compounds indoor air pollution health harms. Please help PSR ensure that electrification is prioritized over dangerous fossil fuel appliances. Our health, the climate, and our most vulnerable populations depend on it.

Take Action

Please send a brief message to the IRS compelling them to center environmental justice and prioritize full electrification in the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Here are some suggestions for points you might want to make. Feel free to choose a few. Put your message in your own words.

• Thank the IRS for this opportunity to comment on the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act.
  
• We must use Inflation Reduction Act monies to provide financial incentives that will enable low-income homeowners to eliminate gas stove pollution, by switching from gas to electric stoves, and upgrading to heat pump water heaters and furnaces.
  
• The harms from fossil fuel appliances disproportionately threaten persons in communities of color or low-income communities, persons with pre-existing health problems, and our children. Preventing the worst consequences of climate change requires urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  
• Gas appliances, even those that are highly efficient, are associated with a host of indoor air quality health impacts. Gas stoves in particular release dangerous air pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, particulate matter and benzene.
  
• Gas stoves have been found to be especially dangerous to children. disproportionately burdening those in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Children are more at risk from indoor air pollution due to their more fragile immune systems and more active lifestyles.
  
• Lower-income and communities of color are three times more likely to live in an area with poor outdoor air quality, which compounds indoor air pollution health harms.
  
• Living in a non-private dwelling, being Black, and living below the federal poverty level are all risk factors for childhood asthma, one of the most prominent health effects of gas stove use.
  
• Electrification can provide environmental justice communities access to cleaner air and healthier homes, and access to clean energy and energy efficiency while helping meet the Biden administration’s climate ambitions.
  
• A typical U.S. home can cut its heating-related climate pollution by 45 percent to 72 percent by swapping out a gas-fired furnace for an efficient, all-electric heat pump.
  
• Reliance on gas and oil appliances is a key contributor to methane pollution, a potent greenhouse gas, with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over its first 20 years in the atmosphere.

Note: Any personal information you submit may be publicly visible on the IRS docket.