Exclusive: Biden officials tap Obama veterans to help sell climate law incentives

Zoom in: The far-reaching campaign involves more than 40 groups and messengers, Civic Nation tells Axios.

• United Way, Carrier, Sunrun, and a bipartisan group of mayors from around the country signed on, and advocacy groups like Climate Power, the League of Conservation Voters and Rewiring America did too.

How it works: Campaign partners will hold events, share resources and announcements, and conduct grassroots organizing around new clean energy tax credits and rebates.

• The intent is to help spread the word through trusted messengers in communities, including schools, community-based organizations and more.

Between the lines: The creation of this effort is a tacit admission that so far, the public is insufficiently aware of the IRA's benefits.

• This includes lower-income residents who could benefit most from some of the law's provisions.
• That's an election-year political problem for Democrats, and it could hinder the law's effectiveness in lowering the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

Zoom out: Civic Nation includes veterans of the Obama White House, making it a comfortable fit for the Biden administration.

• Former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett heads the board, which includes other former high-ranking Obama officials. Civic Nation CEO Kyle Lierman is also an Obama veteran.
• The organization has conducted COVID vaccine outreach campaigns, works on nonpartisan voter registration drives and more.

The intrigue: Lierman sees this alliance of groups, including the federal government, as embarking on an education, rather than advocacy, campaign, he tells Axios.

• "The IRA obviously is broadly popular, but folks need to be supported, and we need to make sure folks understand how to take advantage of these incredible opportunities," he said.
• "In order to do that, it can't just be, you know, press releases. It has to be a kind of surround sound campaign, where folks are hearing about how they can take advantage of these opportunities on their phones when they read the news, but also at their churches, at the supermarket, at the door."

The big picture: According to the DOE, the new tax incentives and rebates contained in the IRA could save Americans approximately $38 billion on electricity bills by 2030.

• John Podesta, President Biden's top climate diplomat who also oversees the rollout of the IRA's clean energy provisions, tells Axios the hope is that more people will tap into the cost savings available to them to electrify their homes with solar panels and purchase more energy-efficient appliances.

• For example, the home energy tax credit provides incentives for purchasing heat pumps, which use far less energy than standard HVAC systems.
• Podesta said it took time to roll the programs out but thinks people will take advantage once they're aware of them. "These rebate programs, because they were new and because they were based in the states, they were sort of complicated to get them up and running," he says.

What they're saying: Podesta does not see them as vulnerable under a potential future Republican administration. "I think they'll be popular and there will be continued support both on Capitol Hill and in the White House for them," he says.

• Podesta sees the Civic Nation partnership as a new effort in the energy space, whose goal is to make it clear to people that not only are energy rebates available, but also to show them how to complete the process by listing nearby contractors, for example.
• "Some of this is a lack of general awareness that these general programs are available," he said, but some is also a question of "What does it mean for you?" Podesta said.