Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

Minnesota’s grid regulators last week refused to rubber stamp a $197 million proposal from the state’s public utility to build hundreds of charging stations in a case seen as a test for whether gas stations and truck stops will be elbowed out of the EV charging market by ratepayer-funded, monopolistic utilities, Tanya Snyder and Catherine report.

In the EV charging proposal , part of the rate case Xcel Energy submitted to regulators in August, the utility warned that Minnesota is not on track to meet its goal of 20 percent electric vehicles by 2030, and argued that “we have not seen the market fill in key gaps regarding necessary public charging.” But gasoline retailers that are eager to add EV chargers say utilities’ strategy would give them an unfair advantage. Under their plan, the utilities would get a leg up on the competition by using ratepayer funds to cover the costs of building charging stations and can charge themselves lower rates for the electricity than they would charge a truck stop operator.