Opinion: It’s way too hard to install this climate-friendly appliance

Good morning. Editorial writer Tony Barboza here, and it is Wednesday, April 10.

Last week I was in Philadelphia attending the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, and one thing I heard a lot about was heat pumps.

I met Rewiring America’s Mr. Heat Pump, who promotes the installation of these electric appliances that can both heat and cool your home, or provide hot water. They’re key to fighting climate change (and smog) because they are up to three times more efficient than gas furnaces and water heaters and emit no pollution.

I also visited a new heat-pump training lab aimed at putting people to work installing and maintaining them. But even heat-pump enthusiasts were frank about the challenges retrofitting homes, and not just because of the slow rollout of Inflation Reduction Act rebates. Many contractors don’t like installing heat pumps based on outdated misconceptions about their performance and resistance toward adapting to new technology.

It was a familiar story to me.

When the decades-old gas water in my home died a few years back, I wanted to replace it with a heat pump. I called a slew of plumbers and installers and most said they didn’t do heat pumps and worked only with gas. Others tried to dissuade me, warning that I wouldn’t like it and my electric bills would only go up — without mentioning that my gas bill would go down or that there might be incentives available to offset the cost.

One installer offered heat-pump water heaters, but explained that I’d need new electrical wiring that would take more time. My family just needed working hot water again. Frustrated, I gave up and replaced it with another gas-fueled model. I still regret that decision, but I also know I’m not the only person who has encountered similar obstacles.

Andrew Heath, vice president of utilities intelligence at J.D. Power, faced a thicket of bureaucratic hurdles when he replaced his gas-fueled furnace with a climate-friendly heat pump and tried to access rebates that promised to defray the cost by almost $5,000.

“What I found was a tangle of red tape, well-meaning but tragically ill-informed customer service representatives, and hours upon hours of filing forms, chasing down obscure information and questioning contractors — all in a quixotic quest to claim my local, state and federal rebates,” Heath recounted in an op-ed.

The technology is here and we have public policies to catalyze its adoption, “so why is it so hard to get help switching to a climate-friendly heat pump?” Heath asks.

It’s a question I found myself nodding along to.

It’s not OK for special interests to use the California ballot to attack each other. Voters could, again, be stuck trying to make sense of a murky, self-serving ballot measure, writes The Times’ editorial board. This time, the California Apartment Assn. has drafted an initiative for which the sole purpose appears to be stopping controversial AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein from putting his own measures on future ballots.

Trump turns his trials into a soapbox. Does he know he’s channeling Hitler? There are chilling parallels in how the two demagogues, a century apart, exploited “their constitutionally guaranteed rights to free speech and due process in an effort to undermine democratic processes and structures,” warns Timothy W. Ryback, the co-founder and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague.

One way to save the Colorado River? Give up one hamburger a week. Sometimes it feels as though individuals are powerless to make big environmental change, but Aaron Mead crunched the numbers and determined that a pretty modest shift in lifestyle could make a big collective improvement to the water supply of the southwestern U.S.

Juvenile probation failures have left L.A.’s troubled kids nowhere to go. The California and Los Angeles County agencies responsible for providing rehabilitation, education and care for the most troubled youths have proved incapable of the job, the editorial board writes. “Young people in Los Angeles County juvenile halls are likely come out worse than they went in.”

College costing nearly $100,000 a year? Forgiving loans is the least we can do. For the bottom 20% of earners in our society, people who once had a chance to climb up the economic ladder, college has become a treacherous option, writes columnist LZ Granderson. “They need the degree to have any hope of getting ahead over their lifetimes; an undergraduate degree is like a sail to speed up their earnings. But the debt that now comes with a degree is an unforgiving anchor slowing them down.”

More from this week in opinion

From our columnists

• Jackie Calmes: Biden had words with Bibi over Israel’s apocalyptic Gaza war. Only action will do.
• Robin Abcarian: The boomer versus millennial grudge match is silly.

From the Op-Ed desk

• I’ve covered California’s homeless since before the word was used. This is what I learned.
• Just don’t call it a bagel. It’s fluffy, domed and dimpled.
• Anti-immigrant vitriol isn’t just bigotry. It also shows a huge misunderstanding of our economy.

From the Editorial Board

• Disneyland’s gas-fueled Autopia cars showcase the worst of Todayland. EVs are a good start.
• Speaker Johnson must ignore GOP hardliners and pass Ukraine aid now.

Letters to the Editor

• Are modern cars too complex and screen-heavy to be driven safely?
• My homeowner’s insurance policy isn’t being renewed. California is in trouble.
• California shouldn’t bestow higher minimum wages on select workers.