(C) Daily Montanan This story was originally published by Daily Montanan and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Transportation Interim Committee discusses two electric vehicle bills in Montana – Daily Montanan [1] ['Nicole Girten', 'More From Author', '- July'] Date: 2022-07-07 “Say Elon!” “Elon!” said Montana State Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, as he stepped inside the Tesla parked in front of the Capitol on Thursday morning. Ankney serves on the Transportation Interim Committee, which met Thursday to discuss two draft bills concerning electric vehicles in the state of Montana. Members were allowed to test drive electric vehicles from Ford, Chevy and Tesla through the Montana Automobile Dealers Association & Tesla Inc., according to the meeting agenda. The draft legislation is PD003, which would establish an annual fee on electric vehicles in Montana, and PD007, which would establish a tax on electric vehicle charging stations. The committee heard feedback on the bills from stakeholders, including representatives from NorthWestern Energy, electric vehicle charging station company Charge Point, the lobby group Alliance for Automotive Innovation and others. The committee did not take action on Thursday. Members of the committee said they wanted to wait to gather more information about what the federal government was planning to do regarding electric vehicle taxation as far as a road use tax or a gas tax is concerned. A focus of conversation surrounded PD007’s tax structure for recharging batteries at public charging stations, which as currently written would be .03 cents per kilowatt-hour, a measurement of energy spent per hour, or equivalent use. Outlined in the Montana Electric Infrastructure Deployment Plan released last week, Montana Code Annotated currently prohibits non-utilities from charging electric vehicles by the kilowatt-hour. The draft bill contains language that would null this prohibition. “Charging by time can create equity issues because older vehicles and batteries typically take more time to charge than newer model EVs [electric vehicles],” the plan reads. Rep. Dave Fern, D-Whitefish, told the Daily Montanan that the committee is directing staff to look into other methods of charging. “It’s very possible we might look at a different model or incorporate, potentially incorporate, road usage into it,” Fern said, adding that the committee doesn’t feel bound to make a decision. “We would like to have one or two pieces of legislation as starting points for the regular transportation committee in the next ‘23 session, to have something to work with.” He said that there’s so much information coming in and models from other states, that what goes through the interim committee could look very different from what works its way through the Montana Legislature next year. Christopher Puyear of NorthWestern Energy said during Thursday’s meeting that moving towards a flat tax model, as opposed to the kilowatt-hour structure, would be easier to implement. “We think that would be easier for consumers to understand, and I don’t think that your average EV charging customer knows what a kilowatt hour is, and many retailers are not as familiar with that terminology,” Puyear said. Public Service Commission President James Brown penned a response to the committee’s inquiry over how the PSC plans to approve electric vehicle charging station rates, saying the commission has not yet undertaken a process for setting a rate. Brown said the utility bears the burden of demonstrating that its proposed rates are “just and reasonable,” and that to date, regulated public utilities have not proposed, nor has the PSC approved, rates relating to EV charging stations. Brown said the PSC will look at rates this fall as they are required to consider potential charging infrastructure options by November 2022, as outlined in the federal Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act of 2021. Director of the Montana Department of Transportation Malcolm Long said he was pleasantly surprised by how much he enjoyed test driving the Ford Mustang Mach-E 4x, saying it picks up speed quickly but you don’t hear the familiar hum of the engine. Long said he couldn’t predict how quickly electric vehicles will become prominent in Montana, but said demand is going faster than anyone ever expected worldwide. According to the drafted EV infrastructure plan, Montana has one of the lowest EV adoption rates in the United States, but the number of EVs registered in Montana has more than doubled since Department of Environmental Quality began collecting registration data in 2019. “We talk about it at the nationwide meetings, about range anxiety, “ Long said. “I always make fun of it. I said, ‘Yes, that’s when we worry about the fences between our ranches, it’s our range anxiety.’” Committee member Rep. Denley Loge, R- St. Regis, test drove the Ford F-150 Platinum Lightning, and also commented on the speed, saying it might be scary for a beginner driver. Loge said Montana would likely see more and more charging stations pop up, but was probably five years out from “hard use.” He also said he himself would probably wait until the prices of EVs come down before he would think of purchasing one. Fern said the vehicles were impressive to him. “It’s kind of an exciting future,” Fern said. He said there’s a lot of important details to get over as far as the charging infrastructure, improvements of batteries and discussions around recycling batteries, the lifespan of these vehicles and industry expectations. For the time being, Long said he didn’t have an electric vehicle, but he hadn’t ruled it out: “Not, yet.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/07/07/transportation-interim-committee-discusses-two-electric-vehicle-bills-in-montana/ Published and (C) by Daily Montanan Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/