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Minutes for SB167 - Committee on Utilities
Short Title
Prohibiting electric public utilities from recovering from ratepayers the costs associated with electric vehicle charging stations and requiring electric public utilities to establish electric vehicle charging service rate schedules.
Minutes Content for Tue, Feb 11, 2025
The Chair opened the hearing on SB 167.
Nick Myers provided an overview of the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 14).
Ted Augustine testified in support of the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 15). Mr. Augustine stated that his organization wanted to enter the electric vehicle charging business but had concerns about the substantial capital required. He said investors needed guard rails to protect their investments from being undercut by electric utility owned EV fast chargers.
Brian Posler testified in support of the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 16). Mr. Posler stated that electric vehicles are probably the future, and that businesses have a real need to build electric charges. If filling stations are to survive, they have to transition to other fuel types.
Robert Baratta testified in support of the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 17). Mr. Baratta said his membership needed the statutory certainty in Kansas in order to make the significant investments required by the private sector to put in these chargers as part of Kansas's transportation fueling infrastructure.
Randy Stookey, Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and General Counsel, Kansas Grain and Feed Association, Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association, and Renew Kansas Biofuels Association, provided written testimony in support of the bill (Attachment 18).
Kari Sue Vosburgh, Private Citizen, provided written testimony in support of the bill (Attachment 19).
Elizabeth Patton, Kansas State Director, Americans for Prosperity, provided written testimony in support of the bill (Attachment 20).
Brett Anderson, Private Citizen, provided written testimony in support of the bill (Attachment 21).
Mike Morley testified in opposition to the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 22). Mr. Morley said that Midwest Energy had a long history with EV fast chargers and level 2 chargers. He explained the significance of the demand charge issue; that is is very difficult for utilities to serve such tremendous loads at one time.
Reagan McCloud testified in opposition to the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 23). Mr. McCloud said that the issue of guaranteed rate of return did not apply to electric cooperatives because there is no profit motive for electric cooperatives. He proposed an amendment if the committee pursues this legislation further.
Chuck Caisley testified in opposition to the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 24). Mr. Caisley said that Evergy supports EV expansion and currently have 110 of the 600 public EV charging stations in Kansas. These charging stations were put in at shareholders' expense and were not subsidized. The KCC has ruled that the charging stations cannot be recovered in rates. He stated that Evergy was not the competition; they put in charging stations where they are needed.
Josh Svaty testified in opposition to the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 25). Mr. Svaty testified that municipal utilities are publicly owned by their communities and should not be included on this bill. Some of these communities are very small, and their fuel retailers on I-70 are probably the largest business they have in town. If they were not allowed to do demand service charges to an EV charging station at that fueling station, that would quickly be the biggest electric pull on the system in that community.
Justin Grady provided neutral testimony on the bill and stood for questions (Attachment 26).
Joseph Astrab, consumer counsel, Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Board provided written neutral testimony (Attachment 27).
There being no further conferees, the Chair closed the hearing on SB 167.
The meeting adjourned at 2:25 P.M.
