Ohio’s share of the funding is significant.” “That is occurring under the federal infrastructure bill. “The federal government is making substantial funds available to local governments for electric vehicle charging stations,” Maureen Willis, legal director for the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, told the House Finance Committee last week, according to a written copy of her testimony. In addition, they said, the way the language is written “is generally lacking in consumer protections.” That’s famously been a problem with Ohio utilities and the agency that’s supposed to be regulating them.Ī provision in House Bill 33, a draft state budget, would allow monopoly utilities to impose higher rates to fund economic-development activities such as supplying EV stations even though subsidies for such activities are already available from the state and local governments, the advocates said. The people who will be profiting from those stations or the utilities themselves should bear those costs, they said. Now groups representing Ohio utility consumers and manufacturers are trying to kill a plan that would force ratepayers to finance the electricity infrastructure needed to serve those charging stations. roadways is expected to ramp up dramatically in the coming years, and with it the number of charging stations will have to grow as well. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.īY: MARTY SCHLADEN – Ohio Capital Journal

Beyond by Maureen A. Miller