By Change Oklahoma Director Susan McCann
Recently in Congress, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed an infrastructure package that will receive a floor vote in the coming weeks. While Democrats have been vocal about how their bill prioritizes reducing carbon pollution, some policies they have included in this package regarding electric vehicles could make it less likely that consumers switch to electric vehicles, the exact opposite impact than they intended.
One component of the INVEST Act promotes building electric vehicle charging stations on highway’s right-of-ways. Those who support this policy likely believe that it will result in more charging stations, but haven’t considered that this will discourage businesses located off the highway from investing in charging stations, because they could not fairly compete with the on-highway options.
And this is not the only policy that would discourage the private sector construction of charging stations and therefore hamper the transition to electric vehicles.
The INVEST Act would also allow investor-owned utility companies to construct charging stations by imposing higher rates for their current electricity customers – despite that the majority of their customers would not benefit from this infrastructure. In addition, these utility companies would also qualify for federal grants to pay for construction of these charging stations.
Not only is this unfair to ratepayers, who are covering the cost for something that will eventually bring in additional revenue for the utility, this policy would chase away private investment into this marketplace.
If we want more charging stations for electric vehicles, the private sector will be critical. Around 80% of gasoline is sold at privately owned convenience stores, and many of these stores are interested in providing fueling options for electric vehicle owners. But private companies cannot compete with utility companies that can not only charge their customers to cover the cost of construction but also receive federal funds to build these charging stations.
House Democrats have a chance to change the infrastructure package to promote fair competition, and update these policies so they don’t discourage electric vehicle charging station construction. Otherwise this bill is not worthy of Democratic support.
If the bill passes the House as is, there is still a chance to take these ineffective policies out of the final bill since the House and Senate will have to convene a conference committee to hammer out the differences between the House and Senate’s different transportation packages.
Thankfully, the Senate’s transportation bill takes a more effective approach to addressing the shortage of charging stations. Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) included language in the bipartisan Senate infrastructure package to secure $300 million in grant funding to support the private sector building electric vehicle charging infrastructure, in addition to hydrogen fueling stations, along the National Highway System. The key difference between this policy and those found in the House bill is the Senate clarified that these grants should go to the private sector, which has already proven to be key to fueling our transportation sector.
Polls have shown that the lack of charging stations is a key reason Americans are hesitant to switch to electric vehicles. If the Democrats are serious about accelerating this transition, they should not be supporting policies like building charging stations on highway right-of-ways and allowing utility companies to increase rates on their electric customers while receiving federal funds to build charging stations. Both policies will discourage private investment and result in less charging stations for customers, slowing down the much-needed transition to electric vehicles.
