The U.S. Treasury Department announced a new policy that provides consumers and businesses with federal tax credits that reduce the cost of installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The U.S. Department of Energy also released a map to help people easily determine which census tracts qualify for these important tax credits.
To combat climate and local air pollution, cars, trucks and buses must increasingly be connected to clean electricity. For that we need more plugs. The guidance issued today will significantly lower that cost, providing individuals with up to $1,000 to install home charging and businesses with up to $100,000 to install commercial charging equipment.
The Control of Inflation Act expanded the Section 30C tax credit, raising the maximum amount that businesses could claim, but limiting eligibility to “non-urban” low-income areas and census tracts. However, what was meant by “non-urban” was not defined. Instead, we defined the opposite as census tracts designated as “urban” by the U.S. Census Bureau.However, the Census Bureau does not specify tract either way.Specify census instead block City or not? There are often more than 100 city blocks in a given neighborhood. In other words, it was up to the Treasury Department to decide how many non-urban blocks were needed to make an entire district non-urban.
To ensure that people living in non-urban blocks are not unfairly denied access to tax credits simply because they happen to live next door to people living in urban blocks, the Treasury Department will implement common sense and comprehensive measures. approach and issued guidance stating that brochures cannot be produced. If more than 10% of a building block is not a city, it is described as a city. After all, if it’s more than 10 percent orange, it can’t really be called an apple.
According to an analysis conducted by NRDC, this definition of eligible census tracts would unfairly deny access to tax credits to a total of 32 million people compared to a more restrictive definition such as: will be prevented.
- 4.7 million rural residents
- 2.1 million people are living in poverty
- 2.2 million black people
- Hispanic/Latino 3.6 million
This comprehensive approach supports NRDC and 31 other public interest, environmental, public health, and environmental justice organizations, as well as EV charger manufacturers, light and heavy vehicle manufacturers, truck stop and convenience store operators, and major retailers. , supported by workers. trade unions and other key stakeholders; Although these people did not necessarily agree, they all supported this common sense policy.
It’s a good day to recharge in America.