A bill signed by Gov. Tony Evers intended to entice business owners to install electric vehicle charging stations has a side effect that an Ashland official feels is crippling.
Ashland installed two electric vehicle charging stations in a municipal lot last year to make the city greener and attract tourism. Since then, the chargers have received a fair amount of use. City Administrator Brant Kucera said it’s not enough to generate a significant amount of money but pays for themselves.
Across the state there are 568 charging stations with 1,385 ports that the public can use, a lower figure than most neighboring states. The vast majority of them are not Level 3 fast-charging stations.
Evers signed Act 121 in March, which allows businesses to own and operate charging stations without being regulated as utilities. With the new bill, local governments are generally prohibited from owning and operating charging stations. The bill allows them to own slower Level 1 and Level 2 stations and offer them for public use free of charge. They could also have Level 3 stations, but only if they’re solely used by local government.
By doing this, Kucera said the bill “essentially takes away all our rights to owning and operating charging stations in the state of Wisconsin.”
But because the charging stations in downtown Ashland were installed last year, he said the city can still operate those. Moving forward, the city likely won’t install any more because of the bill, Kucera said. The city applied for a grant to install more, but he said the city would withdraw that.
“It’s very unfortunate given the fact that up here, especially, the EV charging station infrastructure is not nearly developed enough for them to pull the rug out like that,” Kucera said.
Evers signed an additional bill in March creating an EV charging infrastructure program through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, allowing it to receive and administer upwards of $78 million in National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program funds. Evers said the state would primarily use funds to make it easier for gas stations, convenience stores and other businesses to operate the electric vehicle charging stations.
“We don’t have to choose between protecting our environment and natural resources or creating good-paying jobs and infrastructure to meet the needs of a 21st-Century economy — in Wisconsin, we’re doing both,” Evers said in a release in March. “Expanding EV charging infrastructure is a critical part of our work to ensure Wisconsin is ready to compete and build the future we want for our kids — one that is cleaner, more sustainable, and more efficient. Thanks to President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re ready to get to work.”
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation has said it expects to use $78.7 million in federal grants to support building 65 high-speed charging stations in key corridors.
“WisDOT is ready to activate the federal funding and help industry quickly build fast chargers across the state. Electric vehicle drivers in Wisconsin will soon be able to travel about 85 percent of our state highway system and never be more than 25 miles away from a charger,” WisDOT Secretary Craig Thompson said in the release.
Wisconsin Public Radio contributed to this story.
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