ACCA's 2025-26 policy agenda reflects our commitment to champion contractor-driven solutions at the federal and state levels. Based on over 1,100 comments and votes from contractors like you, we can ensure that our advocacy reflects the day-to-day realities contractors and their customers face. We hope you’ll join us in the fight for a skilled workforce, fuel and technology choice, smart efficiency incentives, and reasonable refrigerant regulations over the next two years.
The HVACR industry faces a critical labor shortage that remains contractors’ top policy concern. Too many federal incentives steer students towards 4-year universities and a lifetime of debt. The time has come to level the playing field for career and technical education (CTE) generally and contractors’ in-house training programs in particular.
With too few career-ready grads from trade schools, contractors are investing millions in their own training programs, often without assurance trainees will stay. ACCA proposes a new tax credit to offset these costs and encourage broader adoption of in-house training.
ACCA supports reauthorization of and increased appropriations for programs like Perkins grants and WIOA that level the playing field for CTE. ACCA will fight to ensure contractors' in-house training programs are eligible under these programs.
ACCA applauds President Trump's executive order seeking one million new apprentices. To meet that goal, we must reform these programs to eliminate burdensome union rules and better support both in-house and multi-state programs.
Explore key documents, reports, and toolkits related to our workforce development initiatives.
Find out how you can support our mission and take action on critical workforce issues.
Contractors call upon decades of experience and industry standards to help consumers balance comfort, safety, efficiency, and affordability in designing comfort systems for their homes and businesses. But regulators increasingly limit consumer choice with bans on natural gas or specific technologies like non-condensing furnaces. Such efficiency rules often mandate unaffordable modifications to existing structures and fail to achieve real-world efficiency gains as consumers postpone upgrades and depend on inefficient alternatives like space heaters and window units.
Regulators in at least 11 states have moved to restrict access to or eliminate incentives for natural gas equipment. ACCA applauds the 27 states that have acted to protect access to efficient gas equipment and supports the Energy Choice Act (H.R. 3699/S. 1945).
The Department of Energy's 2028 ban on non-condensing furnaces would create enormous burdens including costly structural modifications to older homes and businesses. Congress should act to overturn the ban and reform the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA).
Access key resources and information on fuel and technology choice for HVACR systems.
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Learn how you can help protect consumer choice and support our advocacy efforts.
Contractors overwhelmingly agree that efficiency incentives should reward Quality Installation (QI), not just equipment ratings. Recent studies suggest 90% of residential HVACR systems have significant installation faults, costing 30-50% of their rated efficiency. Fortunately, smart connected tools and third-party verification like ACCA’s QI certificates now allow policymakers to incentivize realized efficiency like never before.
Current federal, state, and utility incentives pour billions into increasingly costly equipment, with no assurance that systems will be properly designed and installed. Shifting incentives to verify that systems are installed in accordance with the ACCA 5 Quality Installation Standard will help ensure that consumers get what they pay for while driving demand for quality contractors.
The 25C Home Energy Efficiency Tax Credit, 179D Commercial Building Energy Efficiency Deduction, and 45L Energy-Efficient Home Credit drive contractor business by providing incentives that are simple, fuel neutral, and available nationwide. Eliminated in the 2025 budget process, these incentives could be restored at lower cost by eliminating costly prevailing wage bonuses and/or adding Quality Installation requirements.
Having spent billions driving consumers towards high-end HVACR equipment that is costly to maintain, Congress should protect their investment by providing tax incentives for system maintenance in accordance with the ACCA 4 Quality Maintenance standard.
Find standards, guides, and best practices for Quality Installation of HVACR systems.
Discover how you can contribute to advancing Quality Installation standards.
Contractors and their customers are currently suffering through a chaotic and costly transition to mildly flammable A2L refrigerants. Meanwhile, some states are already moving forward with another transition to highly flammable A3 refrigerants as soon as 2034. Congress and EPA should act to provide market certainty and minimize future disruptions.
We now see California, New York, Washington, and others proposing a patchwork of accelerated phase-outs, reclaim mandates, certification requirements, and extended producer responsibility laws. Congress should uphold the original intent of the AIM Act by enacting federal preemption.
While some contractors are excited by the potential of natural refrigerants (once appropriate standards, codes, training, and certification are in place), we’re nowhere near ready to complete that transition by 2034 as mandated by New York State’s Part 494 regulation.
ACCA supports updates to EPA's 608 certification, including flammable refrigerant safety training, periodic recertification, continuing education, and clearer enforcement.
Access technical guides, safety protocols, and updates on the refrigerant transition.
Learn how you can participate in shaping a sensible refrigerant transition policy.
With new leadership in Washington, many battles over environmental regulations and labor law are shifting to the states. It is not ACCA’s intent to promote a uniform state policy agenda nationwide, but rather to serve as a hub for Allied Contracting Organizations and others to exchange policy solutions and advocacy tactics.
Currently, 17 states currently lack a meaningful HVACR license. Even where they exist, weak continuing education and enforcement undercuts quality contractors. In some states, burdensome union-backed rules also constrain the HVACR workforce. ACCA will facilitate the exchange of best practices as states consider licensing reform.
Many contractors face the threat of “nuclear verdicts” and growing concern around PFAS “forever chemical” liability. Contractors from Georgia and Texas have share promising models for liability reform that others could rally behind.
At ACCA's Town Hall, contractors shared recent wins and creative ideas like Texas expanding apprenticeship candidates by reducing the minimum age from 18 to 16, incentives for bioheat as an environmentally friendly alternative to electrification, limiting non-compete agreements that constrain free enterprise, Labor Day sales tax holiday for tool purchases, and allowing health and accident insurance policies to be sold across state lines.
Learn about the latest state licensing and continuing education requirements in your state.
Find out how to engage with your local Allied Contracting Organization and influence state policy decisions.
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