Evan, good evening to you. Basically,
this new law says that a power company cannot raise
your bill,
my bill, or anyone's bill in order to build an
electric vehicle charging station that they own and operate.
Well, advocates say that this is good news even if
you don't own an electric vehicle.
This law is. I mean,
in some ways it's the gold standard for the country.
Ryan McKinnon, A spokesperson for Charge Ahead Partnership,
a group of businesses and individuals pushing for more electric
vehicle charging across the country,
says Oklahoma's new law shows the state is open for
EV business.
That creates an open playing field for lots of businesses
to invest in it and to get into this marketplace.
The new law prevents power companies from building and operating
EV charging stations at your expense.
It's fundamentally not really fair when they do that.
Because that means maybe your grandma,
maybe someone on a fixed income,
someone who's never going to own or drive an electric
vehicle,
is paying more each month so that people who do
own electric vehicles can charge up on the cheap,
McKinnon says. For those who do drive an EV,
it's also good news because more businesses will be able
to build charging stations in more locations across the state
does That creates an open playing field for lots of
businesses to invest in it and to get into this
marketplace,
and you'll probably see more EV charging stations.
As a result, McKinnon says,
other states like our neighbors in Colorado and New Mexico
that don't have similar laws are seeing the impacts.
You are seeing power companies being very aggressive in raising
everyone's power bill so they can open their own EV
charging stations.
And this law that went into effect today is just
one of hundreds of bills that are now law in
Oklahoma.