An EV charging station bill that received unanimous support from Oklahoma legislators was signed into law this week by Gov. Kevin Stitt.
Senate Bill 502 will allow private businesses such as convenience store operators to install their own Electric Vehicle charging stations without having to compete with electric utilities.
The bill also prevents utilities that creating charging stations from subsidizing them with rates paid by other customers.
The bill was authored by Sen. Chuck Hall of Perry and House Speaker Pro Tempore Kyle Hilbert of Bristow. It was approved in the House on a 92-0 vote and in the Senate on a vote of 44-0.
In an April interview with KTUL TV News, Ryan McKinnon of the group Charge Ahead Partnership lobbied for passage of the measure.
“What Senate Bill 502 does is it essentially prohibits power companies in Oklahoma from using rate payer funds to open their own EV charging stations,” McKinnon said in the interview.
The measure prevent power companies from raising rates to subsidize their construction of charging stations, thereby creating an unfair advantage over the private sector.
“What we’re seeing in a lot of states is that the power companies are using consumer money to do this, and because the power company then has no capital cost, they’re able to sell the electricity at below market rates. Which, just imagine if there were state-owned gas stations that sold gas for a dollar a gallon, every private gas station would go out of business,” said McKinnon before SB 502 became law.
