In the Headlines
February 10, 2023

Need for EV Charging Stations Jolts Development

Law360

Energy attorney Stephen Humes spoke with Law360 about the growing need for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and its impact on real estate. President Joe Biden has expressed a goal of building 500,000 EV charging stations across the country by 2030. In this article, real estate and infrastructure attorneys explained the hurdles facing the Biden Administration, including utility upgrades, state and local regulation, zoning and planning approvals and funding. Mr. Humes specifically highlighted the aging utility infrastructure in the United States.

If a developer is expanding installation of the D.C. fast chargers, electric utilities often need to build up their distribution infrastructure to support that, he said, which comes at a significant cost. Some property owners have successfully argued that charging-point access serves a public purpose and have cost-shared with the utility, while others are still in a gray area of regulation and which party should bear the brunt of the financial outlay.

"When it comes to open public parking areas or transit locations where there's a high volume of charging, that cost for the [infrastructure] either has to be borne by the developer or the electric utility, and if they're given the proper rate incentives to do it, they're usually willing to do it if they can recover the costs," said Mr. Humes. "It comes down to the state legislature to make those investments to support the EV charging backbone."

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