FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 6, 2025
Contact: Erik Mebust, erik.mebust@sen.ca.gov, 607-544-4435
Robin Tung, robin@buildingdecarb.org, 805-405-8167
To Slash Energy Costs, Air Pollution & Climate Emissions, Senator Wiener Introduces Legislation to Streamline Heat Pump Permitting
The Heat Pump Access Act will standardize heat pump permitting to help make heat pump installations faster, simpler, and more affordable for homeowners and contractors while supporting California in achieving its heat pump and climate targets.
SACRAMENTO – Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced SB 282, The Heat Pump Access Act. SB 282 will make cost-saving, energy efficient heat pump water heater and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) installations faster, simpler and more affordable by streamlining the permitting process. Making these dual-use, zero-pollution air filtration and HVAC systems more accessible will speed the recovery of communities impacted from climate disasters, such as Los Angeles. Updating the permitting process is also an essential step to help the state meet its goals of installing 6 million heat pumps by 2030, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045.
Heat pumps are a highly efficient, zero pollution option for HVAC systems and water heaters that make heating and cooling homes cleaner, safer, and more affordable. Because heat pumps are so energy efficient (reducing electricity use for heating by up to 75%), the average household in the US can save nearly $400 a year by switching to a heat pump. When paired with solar and/or battery systems, and outfitted with demand response capabilities, heat pumps can save residents even more.
Replacing a fossil fuel HVAC or water heating system with a heat pump eliminates harmful pollutants those systems release into homes, improving the health of Californians and slashing climate emissions dramatically. Heat pumps also include air filtration capabilities that reduce indoor air pollution from other sources, such as wildfire smoke.
“Californians need relief from sky-high energy costs and the extreme temperature changes driven by climate change, and heat pumps are an essential solution to both problems,” said Senator Wiener. “Unfortunately the permitting process for heat pumps is deeply broken, making homeowners suffer long waits, high fees, and needless hoops just to install a heat pump. The Heat Pump Access Act will create a standardized permitting process across the state that is faster, simpler, and cheaper for homeowners and contractors.”
Extreme weather events like heat waves and explosive wildfires are on the rise in California, and exacerbated by fossil fuel use. More than a quarter of Californians lack air conditioning, and low-income households and communities of color are significantly less likely to have access to the cooling they need to stay safe during extreme heat events.
California is recovering from one of the most destructive wildfire disasters in its history, which released toxic pollutants into the air. In addition, fossil-fuel fired space and water heaters emit toxic pollution into the air every time they operate. Pollution from these appliances cause over 354 premature deaths in the state, disproportionately impacting communities of color. The air filtration systems in heat pumps filter indoor air rather than bringing polluted outside air into the home, which can help secure healthier indoor air. The Heat Pump Access Act is critical to helping speed the process for households installing heat pumps for life-saving cooling, clean air, and climate progress.
Streamlining permitting for heat pumps is also critical to ensuring that California is able to meet the targets set by Governor Gavin Newsom of installing 6 million heat pumps by 2030, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. There is already clear momentum for heat pumps, which outpaced gas furnace shipments in 2024. However, with just under 2 million heat pumps installed throughout the state, this leaves five years to deploy over 4 million additional heat pumps––which will require quadrupling the current rate of installation. Smoothing out the heat pump permitting process is critical to accelerating heat pump installations.
Currently, California’s complex permitting system makes heat pump installation slow and unnecessarily expensive. Over 600 jurisdictions have authority over heat pump permitting, which creates a patchwork of local permitting requirements. This can pose a major challenge for contractors to learn new processes for each city or region. The current permitting process can also involve long wait times for inspection, multiple permit types, high fees, and unnecessary local requirements that can delay heat pump installation and drive up project costs.
The Heat Pump Access Act will tackle these challenges and create:
- A simplified process that prohibits jurisdictions or HOAs from imposing additional requirements on heat pump installations beyond state code
- A faster process that mandates instant or expedited permit issuance for heat pumps
- A maximum of one permit for heat pump installations
- A self-certification pathway for code compliance for contractors to install heat pumps
- Standardized permitting fees with caps to improve affordability
“The Heat Pump Access Act will help California rebuild and fast-track heat pump installations for homeowners,” said Madison Vander Klay, Government Affairs Manager at the Building Decarbonization Coalition. “Equipping homes with highly efficient heat pumps can increase climate resilience, provide comfortable cooling and heating, and reduce air pollution. Heat pumps can help us build back safer, healthier homes and communities.”
“The Heat Pump Access Act is a powerful tool to speed heat pump adoption in California,” said Sam Fishman, Policy Manager at SPUR. “By standardizing the permitting process, we’ll be able to help Californians get the cooling and air filtration that they need in extreme heat, wildfires, and poor air quality days–all while advancing our State’s sustainability goals. This is especially important for our low-income and environmental justice communities that are most impacted by climate change and its harmful impacts.”
“The Heat Pump Access Act will help accelerate the transition to cleaner, healthier homes by minimizing unnecessary barriers for this critical technology,” said Dr. Philip Fine, Executive Officer at the Bay Area Air District. “Expanding access to heat pumps will reduce harmful air pollution from fossil fuel appliances, improve indoor and outdoor air quality, and cut climate emissions—delivering major public health and environmental benefits across California.”
The Heat Pump Access Act is co-sponsored by the Building Decarbonization Coalition, SPUR, and the Bay Area Air District.
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Senator Scott Wiener represents San Francisco, Broadmoor, Colma, and Daly City, as well as portions of South San Francisco and San Bruno in the California State Senate.
The Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC) aligns critical stakeholders on a path to transform the nation’s buildings through clean energy, using policy, research, market development, and public engagement. The BDC and its members are charting the course to eliminate fossil fuels in buildings to improve people’s health, cut climate and air pollution, prioritize high road jobs, and ensure that our communities are more resilient to the impacts of climate change.
SPUR—the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association—is a nonprofit public policy organization. Through research, education, and advocacy, we work to create an equitable, sustainable, and prosperous region by working at the nexus of housing, transportation, land use, economics, sustainability, and hazard resilience. One of SPUR’s sustainability and resilience policy team’s goals is to end the use of fossil fuels in Bay Area buildings by driving the adoption of electric appliances in existing buildings and new construction.
The Bay Area Air District is the regional air quality regulatory agency for the San Francisco Bay Area and is committed to reducing air pollution in California and ensuring that every one of the region’s 7.5 million residents can breathe clean, healthful air. The Bay Area Air District is also committed to ensuring that the state’s most disproportionately affected populations realize emissions reductions as expeditiously as possible.