Ohio middle class overwhelmingly gets most rebates for energy-efficient appliances

In Ohio, federal rebates to consumers purchasing energy efficient appliances have been most successful in middle class neighborhoods. "More than half of the rebates went to households in areas across the state where the annual median incomes are in the $40,000 to $60,000 range," Spencer Hunt of The Columbus Dispatch reports. In Central Ohio, almost half the rebates went to households in areas with median incomes between $50,000 to $70,000. As of April 5, more than 53,400 rebates had been redeemed statewide.

The Dispatch analysis "linked a database of people who redeemed their rebates to a separate database that uses U.S. Census Bureau numbers to estimate median household incomes within Ohio ZIP codes," Hunt writes. The poorest areas of the state, where median income was $30,000 or below, redeemed just 2 percent of the rebates. The richest areas, where median income was $90,000 or above, accounted for just 3 percent.

Lucia Dunn, an economics professor at Ohio State, hypothesized that the rebates, which range from $100 to $250 each, still don't make new appliances affordable for the poorest families. Among those with incomes of $90,000 and higher, "Saving $100 doesn't mean that much," Richard Vedder, an Ohio University economics professor, told Hunt. "The larger explanation is that rich people don't want to be bothered with nickel-and-dime things." (Read more) (Dispatch map by Hunt and Tom Baker)