(HorizonPost.com) – In its push to transition to electric vehicles, the Biden administration is classifying some wealthy enclaves as “low-income” communities to allow it to offer tax credits for car charging stations in areas that could afford them without it, the Daily Caller reported.
In a review of the Energy Department’s interactive map, the Daily Caller found that the “low-income” designation was assigned to multiple tony communities on the East Coast in locations on Martha’s Vineyard, Montauk, NY, sections of Greenwich, CT, the western part of Nantucket, and even a section of President Biden’s summer getaway, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Fishers Island, New York, the historical island getaway of New York’s wealthiest families, including the DuPonts and Rockefellers, was also classified as “low-income” by the Department of Energy to qualify for the EV charging stations tax credit.
The median home price in Martha’s Vineyard is about $1.5 million, which isn’t exactly “low income.”
According to the Daily Caller the Department of Energy also classified several wealthy West Coast locations as low-income as well, including parts of Beverly Hills and the affluent North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.
The low-income tax credit for charging stations, which was included as part of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, provides up to 30 percent off the cost of EV chargers to businesses and individuals in low-income and non-urban communities to make EV infrastructure more affordable.
The effort is part of the Biden administration’s push for “environmental justice” by “increasing access to EV charging in underserved communities,” according to a White House statement.
According to the Internal Revenue Service code, an area is considered “low-income” if it has a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher or if its median income is below that of 80 percent of the nearest metropolitan area.
Under the latter definition, some affluent areas can qualify as “low-income” because the communities surrounding them in the wealthy enclaves are much wealthier.
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