Like many, I was pleasantly surprised when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022, launching unprecedented federal support for climate action. Before that bill in 2022 there had been decades of inaction at the federal level so, honestly, I did not expect much.
The IRA took my breath away. Not only was there new grant funding, the bill also included an updated and expanded system of clean energy tax credits (including new provisions for tax exempt entities). Almost immediately we at OECC realized the opportunity: if we could help people understand and use these new federal resources then we would, collectively, make faster progress toward our shared countywide climate goals.
We leaned into the IRA. In 2024 I did more than 50 public talks encouraging individuals, businesses, nonprofits and local governments to take advantage of the funding. And Mel Askay led efforts to create user-friendly webpages to explain the opportunities in a way that encouraged action; folks far beyond Dane County rave about the web resources she put together.
Whenever I spoke about the IRA opportunities, I conveyed urgency. The opportunity is NOW, I emphasized. Still, like many, I did not think the opportunities would end so quickly. A year ago, the conventional wisdom was that members of Congress preferred to let tax credits expire rather than terminating them early, suggesting that the credits would endure until 2032, regardless of who was in the White House. But that is not what happened. The new President and Congress have revoked many of the clean energy credits, ending some credits as soon as September of this year.
But it’s not over until it’s over. And even then, some of us will keep pushing forward because, really, what is the alternative?
Last week the President signed H.R. 1, the budget bill. And this week we have updated our federal funding pages to reflect the various changes to the clean energy tax credits.
We remain committed to ensuring that folks have good information about the clean energy funding opportunities available. Our IRA webpage is now updated with what changes we will see and when.
Especially now, accurate information is important. None of the tax credits ended immediately but some will end this year and others became a little trickier to access. We are here to demystify all of that so that our stakeholders—the businesses, individuals, nonprofits, local governments and school districts across Dane County—can pursue their clean energy ambitions. We are also here to remind you that other resources—like the federally-funded Home Energy Rebates via Focus on Energy—were not affected by the budget bill. A variety of federal grants remain in place as well.
In the early summer of 2022, before the IRA passed, I was obsessing about how we might mobilize our stakeholders to cut emissions countywide by 2030. Now it’s 2025 and we have made some substantive progress but there is still more to do. Once again, we’re in a spot where we can’t expect a lot of help from the federal government. That is disappointing but it’s not new. A variety of big achievements locally—Forest Edge Elementary in Oregon, the Village of McFarland’s Public Safety Center—predated the IRA. I am confident we will continue to see amazing local leadership because, well, we have outstanding leaders here in Dane County.
So let’s do this. Maximize the clean energy credits while you can and join us in identifying ways to expedite projects once the credits are gone. After all, as County Executive Agard says, it’s the Dane County Way.
Kathy is the Director of the Dane County’s Office of Energy and Climate Change. In that role she's leading efforts to implement the Climate Action Plan. Prior to coming to Dane County, Kathy led Cool Choices and, prior to that, she led Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program.
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