Wayne Winegarden Responds to San Diego push to spend more on EV charging stations in SD Union Tribune

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SDG&E wants to spend $58.4 million to build 2,000 more electric vehicle charging stations

By Rob Nikolewski

San Diego Gas & Electric has already spent $70 million of ratepayer funds on a pilot program that has erected thousands of electric vehicle charging stations in the region. Now the investor-owned utility wants approval to spend an additional $58.4 million to construct a couple of thousand more . . .

If the CPUC approves the proposal, a typical SDG&E residential customer will see an increase on his or her annual bill of:

  • 60 cents in 2021
  • $3.84 in 2022 and
  • $5.64 in 2023 . . .

But Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates for free-market solutions to policy issues, said ratepayer dollars should not go to building EV charging stations.

“This is infrastructure for a car. Could you imagine if they were subsidizing gas stations?” Winegarden said. “Average ratepayers and low-income customers are just trying to pay their bills to get by the month and the utility is using it in a completely unrelated service that many of them don’t benefit from.”

. . . Should the CPUC approve the $58.4 million Power Your Drive extension, SDG&E ratepayers will have paid $157.2 million in various EV infrastructure projects.

Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.

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