√This US state’s radical anti-electric car proposal to ban free EV charging

North Carolina is facing a House Bill that will effectively spell the end of free public electric car charging.

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have proposed a bill that would spell the end of free electric vehicle charging stations in the state.

Representative Keith Kidwell, along with three of his colleagues – Ben Moss, Mark Brody and George Cleveland – filed House Bill 1049 last week. The Bill is called ‘Equitable Free Vehicle Fuel Stations’.

The Bill attacks electric vehicle charging at several stages, including infrastructure set up by the State’s Department of Transportation on public land.

According to a report in The Carolina Journal, House Bill 1049 proposes: “the Department of Transportation shall not use public funds to provide electric vehicle charging stations on property owned or leased by the State or to fund or install electric vehicle charging stations on property owned or leased by a person or entity unless the Department or the person or entity provides gasoline and diesel fuel for motor vehicles through a pump to the public at no charge.”

In short, there can be no public charging stations on State-owned land unless petrol and diesel are also made available free of charge. Under the Bill, the Department of Transportation cannot offer free charging to an electric Ford F-150 Lightning (pictured below) without also providing free petrol for a regular Ford F-150.

Further, Section 5 of the Bill adds a provision that $US50,000 ($AU69,700) will be made available to the Department of Transportation “for the purpose of removing any electric vehicle charging stations that do not comply with the provisions of this act.”

As well as targeting the Department of Transportation, the Bill also takes aim at local governments at both the County and City level, adding; “A county shall not use public funds to provide electric vehicle charging stations on property owned or leased by the county or to fund or install electric vehicle charging stations on property owned or leased by a person or entity unless the county or the person or entity provides gasoline or diesel fuel for motor vehicles through a pump to the public at no charge.”

Private businesses aren’t spared either, with House Bill 1049 requiring businesses, such as restaurants, that provide free electric vehicle charging to declare to every customer – whether they use the EV charging facility or not – how much of every transaction goes towards subsidising the service.

As per the Bill: “Any person who is engaged in a business where electric vehicle charging stations are provided for use by the public at no charge shall ensure that each customer of the business, without regard to whether the customer uses the charging stations, is informed of, on the receipt for purchases, the percentage of the amount of the customer’s total purchase price that is a result of the business providing electric vehicle charging stations at no charge.”

While the disbursement of $US50,000 ($AU69,700) for the removal of electric vehicle charging stations will come into effect on 1 July, 2022, the rest of Bill 1049 must go through the appropriate legislature process before it can be signed off and written into law.

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