Biden Energy Efficiency Rebate Uptake Hinges on Home Contractors

The job of selling homeowners on the Biden administration’s $8.8 billion in energy efficiency rebates is going to fall on the nation’s contractors—most of whom are tiny businesses that aren’t fully up to speed on the rebates themselves.

Two-thirds of the nation’s specialty trade contractors are small businesses generating less than $1 million a year, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Companies that small could be hard-pressed to find time to brush up on the complex web of rebates and subsidies available to homeowners under last year’s climate bill.

And yet contractors and home efficiency auditors, rather than ...