New U.S. Policy Boosts Access to EV Charging

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has introduced a new policy that provides consumers and businesses with access to federal tax credits, reducing the cost of installing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Energy has published maps to help people determine which census tracts will be eligible for these vital tax credits.

In order to combat climate change and local air pollution, it is imperative that we connect our cars, trucks, and buses to increasingly clean electricity. To achieve this, we need more charging infrastructure. The guidance issued today will significantly reduce the cost of installation, offering individuals up to $1,000 to install charging at home and businesses up to $100,000 to install commercial charging equipment.

The Inflation Reduction Act extended the Section 30C tax credit, increased the maximum amount that businesses could claim, and restricted eligibility to low-income communities and certain census tracts. However, defining what is considered “not urban” was challenging, as the Census Bureau designates census blocks as urban or not, rather than entire tracts. To address this, the Treasury Department has taken an inclusive approach, stating that a tract cannot be described as urban if more than 10 percent of the comprising blocks are not-urban.

According to analysis from NRDC, this definition of eligible census tracts will prevent a total of 32 million people from being unduly denied access to the tax credit, including 4.7 million rural residents, 2.1 million people in poverty, 2.2 million Black people, and 3.6 million Hispanic/Latine people.

This inclusive approach was supported by NRDC and 31 other public interest, environmental, public health, and environmental justice groups, as well as EV charger manufacturers, light- and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers, truck stop and convenience store operators, major retailers, labor unions, and other key stakeholders.

Originally published on NRDC Expert blog. By Max Baumhefner, Senior Attorney, Climate & Clean Energy Program