Guest Commentary

By Roger Harnack

Guest columnist

Truck, truck, truck, Tesla. Truck, truck, truck.

Here in rural Eastern Washington, the running joke is that the “T” on a Tesla electric vehicle stands for “tourist.” Indeed, the expensive cars, like their electric Toyota and Rivian counterparts, are an oddity easily picked out among rural residents’ pickups, four-wheel-drives, and older vehicles.

But what some rural residents may not realize is that they are paying to charge many of those expensive EVs.

Over the last couple years, electric vehicle and utility companies have pushed installation of charging stations in rural communities. If you look around your town, you’ll likely see them — many even have two charging ports on a single post — at your city hall or on a downtown street.

These companies say they will donate, give, fund, or otherwise cover the costs for a local government agency to have one installed. Even in small towns like Tekoa or Malden, where few residents can afford to buy or finance an electric vehicle, charging stations have been installed.

But as rural residents understand, nothing in life is free. There’s a price to pay — monetarily for residents and taxpayers, and potentially a legal price for government agencies and employees pushing for EV charging stations.

Tekoa found that out and his since decommissioned its two-port charging station.

At issue is whether a municipality is requiring wealthy electric vehicle owners and operators to pay to charge their vehicles. In Tekoa, the city wasn’t because it was too expensive to purchase a pay-station system to be added to the free charging station.

To compound the problem, city leaders and residents quickly noticed the same two vehicles were plugged into the charging ports daily for several hours. Somebody had to pay the charging bill, and it wasn’t the owners of the vehicles.

The push for taxpayers to foot the bill is spreading. Cheney and Medical Lake and many other communities are considering the “free” public charging ports.

Last week, the Medical Lake City Council discussed the idea of putting a one in front of the municipal library. The discussion stems from Spokane County Library District’s push to offer free charging services at all of its branch libraries.

Red flag.

According to the Article 8 Section 7 of the Washington State Constitution, “no county, city, town or other municipal corporation shall hereafter give any money, or property, or loan its money, or credit to or in aid of any individual, association, company or corporation, except for the necessary support of the poor and infirm…”

Courts determine whether a government has inappropriately given away taxpayer funds by asking if they are being use to carry out a fundamental purpose of government and whether it received an equivalent return on the investment of its funds.

Charging a wealthy EV owner’s vehicle is neither a fundamental purpose of government nor does the government get a return on its “investment” of taxpayer funds. And when it comes to the second test, charging an expensive electric vehicle is not supporting the poor — it’s subsidizing the more affluent.

The power to charge electric vehicles costs taxpayers — some of whom are indigent — real money. So, taking money from taxpayers to pay for electricity to power EVs is clearly a violation of the state constitution.

Rural residents who don’t have the financial wherewithal or desire to purchase an electric vehicle simply shouldn’t have to pay to charge someone else’s battery-operated car, SUV or pickup.

Like you, I’ve heard the argument that it really doesn’t cost taxpayers that much.

But that’s not true.

Kelly Blue Book studies show it costs about $8.10 to charge an average electric vehicle battery on a Level I alternating current charger at home. So, one person, with one electric vehicle charged daily at home will spend about $3,000 annually.

But larger, fast-charging systems can cost from 16-32 cents per minute of use, per charging port.

If used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, a municipal agency could have to pony up more than $168,000 annually for a single port, depending on the charger. That’s not chump change.

If government is going to give away free electricity for a car, then maybe it should give away free gasoline and diesel to the taxpayers funding municipal government.

If they were forced to balance EV, gasoline and diesel funds given away, you can imagine the squeal at city hall.

Better not to give away tax dollars — instead, government should expect vehicle owners to pay for their own electricity, gas or diesel.

Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Email him at [email protected].