With help from Oriana Pawlyk and Tanya Snyder
— Public utilities and gas station operators fight over who will administer EV chargers as billions in federal funds are on the way.
— The House Ethics Committee investigates a part-time pilot serving in Congress.
— U.S. trade officials say they can assuage concerns from Europe, South Korea and Japan over new EV tax credit rules.
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UTILITIES OR GAS STATIONS? Minnesota’s public utility proposed $197 million to build hundreds of EV charging stations around the state, but the state’s grid regulator blocked the plan for now over concerns that it’s not in the public interest for a state-funded utility to build out a charging network where the private sector could step in, Tanya and Catherine Morehouse report.
FAST OR COMPETITIVE? Xcel Energy warned that Minnesota is not on track to meet its goal of 20 percent electric vehicles by 2030, and that it won’t “without convenient public charging infrastructure,” as “range anxiety will remain a top barrier to EV adoption.” But business owners that currently sell gasoline argue that state-owned utilities’ attempt to use ratepayers as a source of funding undercuts their viability to compete as they consider building EV chargers of their own.
“I don’t ever see a charging station — like a gas station off in the future, when the Jetsons are doing this — being only owned by utilities,” Commissioner John Tuma of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission said. “I would hope that we would have a more robust marketplace similar to what we have in the distribution of gasoline.”
LOWER RATES: Utilities have the advantage of being able to charge ratepayers — who often don’t have other options for where they get their power — to cover the costs of building charging stations. They can also charge themselves lower rates for the electricity than they would charge a truck stop operator. The Minnesota issue will now go before an administrative law judge.
NATIONAL IMPLICATIONS: The case is seen as a test for whether the gas station and truck stop industry will be edged out of the EV bonanza by taxpayer-funded, monopolistic utilities not only in Minnesota but also across the country. The issue is also active in California, Florida, Nevada and Georgia.
CAN-KICKING: The typically opaque House Ethics Committee released a statement on Friday saying it is investigating Rep. Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii), though it did not say what Kahele is being investigated for. The committee said the investigation was transmitted to it from the Office of Congressional Ethics in August, and said a future announcement on the status of the investigation will be made by Nov. 28.
PILOT IN CONGRESS: The Ethics probe isn’t likely to amount to much, since the committee has jurisdiction only over sitting members of Congress and Kahele is already on his way out after unsuccessfully running for governor this year. Kahele earned outside income as a pilot while in Congress, though his office said he flew occasional flights to maintain his certification and was in line with rules that cap lawmakers at about $29,000 in outside income annually.
While the investigation isn’t likely to result in any formal punishments, the Ethics announcement was the first public acknowledgment of an investigation into the congressman.
EV FIRES: Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) wrote a letter to DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg highlighting a number of EV fires in Florida due to saltwater flooding lithium ion batteries after Hurricane Ian. Scott asked Buttigieg for DOT guidance regarding the potential for battery fires due to flooding, safety protocols for EVs in advance of inclement weather and any DOT strategies and resources provided to local fire departments responsible for putting out EV fires.
“This emerging threat has forced local fire departments to divert resources away from hurricane recovery to control and contain these dangerous fires,” Scott wrote. “Car fires from electric vehicles have proven to be extremely dangerous and last for a prolonged period, taking in many cases up to six hours to burn out.”
LOTS OF WATER AND TIME: Tesla, in a guide for first responders, urges the use of 3,000 to 8,000 gallons of water to put out an EV battery fire and says to monitor battery temperature with an infrared camera for at least 24 hours after a fire.
IT’LL BE FINE: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has “every confidence” that the Biden administration can resolve concerns that its electric vehicle tax credits unfairly exclude foreign-made vehicles as officials implement the program in the coming months, Steven Overly reports. The EU, South Korea and Japan are all unhappy, and various automakers in those countries are seeking exemptions or grace periods for the new law, which led to certain automakers like Hyundai losing their tax credit status.
“I have every confidence that this is something that we can work through with the EU right now in this period of time,” she said during a press conference.
Employment up: Airlines for America, which represents major airlines, said the latest Bureau of Transportation Statistics numbers shows that the airline industry currently has record-high employment, with about 773,000 people employed by U.S. passenger and cargo airlines. And A4A noted that Thursday’s inflation numbers showing a year-over-year 43 percent increase in airline fares didn’t account for the fact that fewer people were flying in 2020 and 2021. They said that compared with 2019, airline fares are up 8 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index.
— “6 projects show how infrastructure spending is remaking the country.” The Washington Post.
— “Tensions simmer as Metro ridership grows during train shortage.” The Washington Post.
— “This is what the future of the gas station will look like.” Bloomberg.
— “Inside the bicycle’s conquest of Amsterdam.” Bloomberg.
— “As housing prices soar, a wealthy county rethinks the idea of suburbia.” The Washington Post.
— “Could software be the weak link in China’s electric vehicle dominance?.” Quartz.
