In April 2023, the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released guidance on the energy community bonus under the Inflation Reduction Act. The guidance identifies the following location-based categories that qualify as energy communities:

1. coal communities (where a coal mine closed since 1999 or a coal plant closed since 2009),
2. communities that derive a significant proportion of their revenue from fossil fuels,
3. or brownfields.