US/NC/2022/HB/1049

About

HB 1049 is a proposed law that would:

• require any business which offers free electric-vehicle recharging must provide a receipt showing the "pro rata share paid by each customer for the free electricity".
• prohibit "the use of public funds to provide or fund electric vehicle charging stations on public owned or leased property" unless gasoline and diesel fuel are also provided at no charge.

This (especially the second provision) only makes sense as a political publicity stunt: reasonable people will decry it, then conservoids will see all the "liberals" being unhappy and reason to themselves that it must be a good thing, and will therefore rally around it. Politicians who back it will thereby gain donations and votes.

The one logically-viable counterargument is an objection to the use of tax money to pay for free electricity, but this ignores the much larger benefits of providing it.

The incentives to the "business community" which funds most political activity is obvious: if someone is getting anything for free, then said community isn't selling it to them at profit.

This move is very much in line with the NC law which prevents municipalities from starting their own internet (even if they make a profit on it; it's never really about concern for tax dollars spent -- it's about sales revenue lost, i.e. upward wealth extraction).

Links

Official

• NC General Assembly
  • full text (PDF)

News (to file)

• 2022-07-08 North Carolina Republicans want the state to destroy free EV charging stations «The bill was sponsored entirely by Republicans: Reps. Keith Kidwell, Mark Brody, George Cleveland, Donnie Loftis, and Ben Moss. It requires businesses to disclose the percentage of what they’re charging customers that is “the result of the business providing electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at no charge.” Businesses more than likely would be handing customers receipts showing 0%, given the Energy Department’s estimate that it costs just $6 for an EV with a 200-mile range and a 54kWh battery that is fully depleted to be completely recharged.»
• 2022-07-07 North Carolina Looks to Remove Public EV Chargers, Probably to the Trash (via)
  • Commentary: Slashdot
• 2022-06-13 Bill tries to eliminate free charging for electric cars in North Carolina with poor argument
• 2022-05-25 Bill aims for ‘equity’ in fueling vehicles for free ()