SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 6, 2026--
The Building Decarbonization Coalition’s (BDC’s) Momentum Q3 | 2026: Special Legislation Edition report finds that heat pumps made up 58% of space-heating equipment shipped in the first half of 2026, matching their 2024 first-half record, despite last year’s expiration of the $2,000 federal 25C heat pump tax credit.
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The report also found that state legislatures have passed 41 building decarbonization bills so far this year, as rising utility bills made energy affordability one of the defining issues of this year’s legislative sessions.
“Households and legislators appear to be reaching the same conclusion: clean heating and cooling can help rein in rising utility bills,” said Kevin Carbonnier, Associate Director of Analytics at BDC. “In the first half of 2026, heat pumps led the space-heating equipment market even after the federal tax credit expired. In state capitols, legislators concerned about energy costs are turning to heat pumps and thermal energy networks to bring their constituents affordable heating and cooling.”
The report’s Legislative Roundup describes how energy affordability drove many of the building-decarbonization bills introduced and passed in 2026. The approaches these bills used to tackle affordability varied: some states passed bills to streamline permitting, others updated energy efficiency programs to include heat pumps, and others addressed the underlying systems that drive high utility costs, including data centers.
Examples of some of the building decarbonization-related bills passed by legislatures in 2026 that addressed energy affordability include:
"Families across the U.S. are finding themselves struggling to pay rising gas utility bills every month,” said Kristin George Bagdanov, Associate Director of Research at BDC. “These higher bills are increasingly leading state policymakers and utility regulators to reform line extension allowances, accelerated gas pipeline replacement programs, and other utility spending that increases gas rates while delivering little to no benefits to their customers.”
At the same time that legislators and utility regulators are raising more affordability concerns regarding our current energy system, utilities are seeking substantial increases in customer rates. As of the end of the third quarter of 2026, electric and gas utilities are requesting a combined $17.2 billion in rate increases, even as energy costs rose 16% over the last 12 months—nearly 5 times the rate of inflation.
Recent research from BDC highlights how the tens of billions of dollars utilities spend annually on pipeline expansion, replacement, and maintenance, even as average customer demand for gas declines, is a key reason why gas utilities are raising rates. For example:
This year marks BDC's fifth annual legislative roundup. Since 2022, BDC has tracked 580 building decarbonization bills across 44 states, up from 16 states in the first year, and 206 of those bills have passed.
The report’s authors are available for interviews.
The Momentum Q3 | 2026: Legislative Roundup Edition report is available at https://buildingdecarb.org/momentum-q3-2026.
ABOUT THE BUILDING DECARBONIZATION COALITION
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. Learn more at www.buildingdecarb.org.
An HVAC contractor speaks to a customer about a heat pump. Credit: Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC)
REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday sought to reassure NATO ally Iceland that President Donald Trump's administration has no designs on the island but shares its deep concerns about Arctic security as tensions between the United States and Russia rise in the high north and elsewhere.
Rubio hailed the role of diplomacy in resolving conflicts as he began a three-nation tour of NATO allies in the capital of Iceland, where concerns over the Republican administration’s often brusque and sometimes rude approach to traditional friends and partners have stirred unease.
Rubio, whose tour of NATO members will include Greece and Portugal, met Tuesday with Icelandic Foreign Secretary Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir at Reykjavik’s Hofdi House, the site of the 1986 summit between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that is widely regarded as the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
“The house symbolizes diplomacy’s role in ending the Cold War and defeating communism,” Rubio posted on social media after the talks that took place just days before the 40th anniversary of the landmark meeting.
However, both Rubio and Gunnarsdóttir downplayed differences between the allies and said both countries were committed to deepening and expanding military and commercial ties. Rubio made clear that the United States would not do anything in Iceland without Iceland's consent.
“We would be open to having those conversations to see what we can do together,” he said, noting that the U.S. had a decades-long permanent military presence in Iceland until 2006, when shifting priorities caused it to close its Keflavik base outside of Reykjavik. He noted that priorities have shifted again.
And, he went out of his way to praise Iceland: “We have tremendous respect for the people. We have respect for the country in the role it plays, and it has for a very long time,” he said.
Iceland has been uneasy about Trump’s intentions toward it after the posting of a map showing the colors of the U.S. flag sprawling across all of North America and extending to Iceland and Greenland. The unease has persisted despite an agreement reached last month to increase the U.S. presence in the neighboring Danish territory of Greenland that appears to have ended Trump’s earlier demand for the U.S. to take full control.
But on Tuesday, after Rubio's talks with Gunnarsdóttir and Iceland's Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, those tensions appeared to be on the wane.
Gunnarsdóttir said the matter had been largely, if not entirely, resolved. “We remain focused on the future," she said. Rubio, meanwhile, said he was not in Iceland to talk about social media posts. “Everything is very positive,” he said.
Before leaving Washington on Monday, Rubio said the visit is intended to “advance our shared priorities: a secure Arctic, stronger commercial and energy ties, and closer defense cooperation.” He offered no hint of tensions with the island that, while a NATO member, has no standing army.
The map incident, however, alarmed Icelanders, and in response, Gunnarsdóttir summoned U.S. Ambassador Billy Long to a meeting at which she made it clear the post was unacceptable.
Iceland, which is just 180 miles (290 kilometers) from Greenland, had already been on edge after Trump mistakenly named the country four times while speaking about Greenland.
Long, a colorful former Missouri congressman, IRS commissioner and professional auctioneer, also has made waves in Iceland. Before he took up his post in August, thousands of Icelanders signed a petition urging the prime minister to reject him after he made a crack earlier this year about Iceland becoming the 52nd U.S. state and making him governor. He has since apologized for the quip.
Long is not the first Trump ambassador to Iceland to have raised concerns with the host government. In Trump’s first term, Ambassador Jeffrey Ross Gunter left locals in relatively crime-free Reykjavik aghast over his request to hire armed bodyguards, which prompted complaints.
At Rubio’s next stop in Athens, he may be dealing with another ambassador controversy. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week that he would investigate allegations of misconduct and impropriety by the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle.
In a letter to Rubio, Meeks said that he wanted answers following the allegations reported by The Wall Street Journal last month and that he would call for Guilfoyle’s dismissal if the behavior outlined in the news report was true.
The Journal reported that Guilfoyle told guests at a reception that the U.S. could undermine the Greek government if it chose to, promoted the business interests of one particular Greek construction and energy company, and allowed its lobbyist into private diplomatic meetings.
Some Greek opposition parties have called for an inquiry into the allegations, but it's unclear if they will proceed.
Guilfoyle, a former Fox News Channel host and California prosecutor who was once engaged to Trump’s son Donald Jr., has denied any wrongdoing, and Rubio has defended her before.
Guilfoyle, Rubio said after the Journal story appeared, “has been an incredible advocate for the president’s agenda in Greece and across Europe.” Rubio said he and Trump greatly value the ambassador’s “pivotal work and leadership,” notably on energy issues.
The Trump administration sees Greece as key to advancing the promotion and export of U.S.-produced liquefied natural gas to Southeastern and Central Europe.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards a plane Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, at Keflavik Airport in Iceland. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. ambassador to Iceland Billy Long attends a joint press conference held by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir at the House of Collections, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Reykjavik, Iceland. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir attends a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the House of Collections, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Reykjavik, Iceland. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference with Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir at the House of Collections, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Reykjavik, Iceland. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference with Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir at the House of Collections, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Reykjavik, Iceland. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a press conference with Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir at the House of Collections, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, in Reykjavik, Iceland. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives at Keflavik Airport, Iceland, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is welcomed by Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir, center, and by Chief of Protocol Helga Hauksdottir, as he arrives at Keflavik Airport, Iceland, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, is welcomed by Iceland's Foreign Minister Thorgerour Katrín Gunnarsdottir, center, and William Long, the U.S. Ambassador to Iceland, as he arrives at Keflavik Airport, Iceland, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)
