How to Get Your Climate Tax Credits

Uncanny Valley | WIRED

WIRED

Technology

4.1 • 572 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The United States government just passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that allocates nearly $400 billion dollars to fund clean energy and climate efforts. A big chunk of that amount is earmarked for tax credits for consumers. So if you want to install solar panels, buy better windows, purchase a heat pump, or start driving an electric vehicle, there's a good chance you could get some money to offset the cost.

This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED writers Aarian Marshall and Matt Simon join us to talk about the ins and outs of the Inflation Reduction Act and how you can score some of those sweet, sweet tax credits. They also tell us what some of the changes mean for the automobile and construction industries.

Show Notes

Read Matt’s story about how the Inflation Reduction Act could save you money. Read Aarian’s story about how it will lead to more electric delivery vehicles. Here’s their story about where people in cities will charge their EVs. Follow all of WIRED’s climate coverage here.

Recommendations

Aarian recommends going to a baseball game, preferably on the days when dogs are allowed. Matt recommends Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Mike recommends playing Wordle, which is now (finally) in The New York Times’ mobile app. Lauren recommends NPR’s Life Kit podcast series about personal finance.

Aarian Marshall can be found on Twitter @aarianmarshall. Matt Simon is @mrmattsimon. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Mike.
0:53.8	Lauren. Mike, are you planning to take advantage of the inflation reduction act? Are you going to buy an EV, maybe? I can't really afford an EV, but can I get a tax credit for putting a windmill in the 100 square feet of concrete that I call my backyard? Okay. I've been to that backyard. Is there any wind? There typically isn't wind in there. Oh, yeah, there's tons of wind. Really? Yeah. Also, I don't know the answer to your question. We should talk about it. We should. Let's do it. Hi, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired. And I'm Michael Colori. I'm a senior editor at Wired. We're also joined this week by Wired Writers Matt Simon, who joins us here in studio in San Francisco and Ariane Marshall, who's joining us from a closet in Seattle. Hi, guys. Hello. Hello. Good to be back. Okay, so last week, President Joe Biden signed a huge bill into law.
0:58.3	It's called the Inflation Reduction Act.
1:01.1	And as its name implies, it's supposed to curb inflation here in the United States.
1:06.3	But it also allocates nearly $400 billion toward building renewable energy sources and
1:12.8	basically retrofitting America, as Matt put it.
1:16.4	That includes tax credits and rebates that we, consumers, can use on stuff like electric
1:21.0	vehicles, heat pumps, and solar panels.
1:24.4	So if you're wondering, well, how do I get in on it?
1:28.6	That's what we're here to talk about today. Matt and Arion have been parsing through this 730 page bill and figuring out what it all
1:34.5	means. Matt, you wrote a story for Wired.com about how this massive climate bill can save people
1:39.4	money. So does that mean Mike can finally buy his cyber truck? No. I mean, if that's what Mike really wants.
1:46.0	Sure.
1:46.5	Go ahead, Mike.
1:47.8	Wins it available?
1:48.8	30 years?
1:49.5	I don't know.
1:51.8	No.
1:52.3	But so this bill is sneaky in a certain way in that it is giving out a lot of money for homeowners
2:00.3	to prepare their houses for climate change.
2:03.4	And that is through tax credits and rebates, which sounds like a terrible tax code stuff, but it's
2:09.4	actually very interesting. Can you tell us what the difference is between a tax credit and a tax
	...

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