Liberal lawmakers seek to force you to pay higher electric bills to fund electric vehicle chargers

The onslaught of bad energy policy continues at the capitol, as liberal lawmakers are considering legislation (House File 413 and Senate File 1296) that would allow investor-owned utilities like Xcel Energy to build electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and force you to pay for them.

If this idea sounds familiar, it’s because Xcel Energy is proposing to spend about $200 million dollars of your money on 730 fast charging stations and an electric school bus pilot program that has been the subject of fierce criticism at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

More than 325 American Experiment readers have signed our petition telling the PUC not to approve Xcel’s proposal, and the Minnesota Department of Commerce and the Star Tribune Editorial Board also agreed that it would be wrong to force all Xcel Energy customers to pay for electric vehicle charging infrastructure that they may never use.

Given the fact that such a broad swath of Minnesotans think forcing everyone to pay for EV charging stations is wrong, why are liberal lawmakers like Representative Zach Stephenson trying to pass legislation that would rubber-stamp proposals like this in the future?

At the end of the day, programs like these are a wealth transfer from low-income families to wealthy individuals who own electric vehicles.