President Joe Bidens landmark Inflation Reduction Act is packed with billions of dollars worth of credits and rebates for purchasing electric cars and making home improvements that save energy.

If you earn enough each year to owe the federal government money in taxes, then the credits that kicked in on Jan. 1 for buying an electric vehicle or setting up charging stations at home will shave thousands of dollars off your bill to the Internal Revenue Service.

But if youre a low- and middle-income homeowner looking for help covering the cost of swapping a fuel-burning furnace for an electric heat pump, youll have to wait until later next year for a rebate. If your existing appliance breaks in the meantime and you go green with the replacement, theres no guarantee youll get any money back.

Its completely unacceptable, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told HuffPost by phone Friday.

On Monday, Huffman and at least 65 other House Democrats signed a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm demanding that her agency revise its rulebook to allow states to make all rebates retroactively available once states get programs started.

If youre one of the wealthy folks that can access tax credits, youre doing just fine, Huffman said. But if youre a middle-class or working family and youre counting on those more generous rebates to make all of this feasible for you, the Department of Energy is telling you that you have to wait indefinitely: If you were dumb enough to go ahead and buy these things because weve all been telling you to do it, youre out of luck.