High Fees and a Costly Inspection Program Lack Justification
March 4, 2026 – I testified today before the Maryland House of Delegates Environment and Transportation Committee on HB 1225 (“Weights and Measures – Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment – Registration Fees”).
This bill, introduced by Delegate Fraser-Hidalgo, aims to cap registration fees for Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE) used in retail electricity sales as motor fuel. The original language would have limited the per-port fee to no more than the gasoline dispenser meter fee ($20 per meter + $75 per location). It also required funding for inspection equipment to come from the Maryland Strategic Energy Investment Fund (SEIF).
The current Weights and Measures registration fee stands at $150 per port annually, a rate that is one of the nation’s highest and risks discouraging new installations or even lead to the removal of existing chargers.
Environment and Transportation Committee Bill Hearing – HB 969
Electric Vehicle Fuel Sold at Retail – Equipment Requirements, Units of Measure, Sales Price, and Fees
Participants:
Vice Chair Michele Guyton
Delegate Nick Allen (Bill Sponsor)
Lanny Hartmann (EV Driver, Howard County)
Kevin George Miller (Managing Policy Advisor, Tesla)
Opening and Sponsor Testimony
Vice Chair Guyton: We’ll begin with House Bill 969. Delegate Allen, Electric Vehicle Fuel Sold at Retail – Equipment Requirements, Units of Measure, Sales Price, and Fees. Delegate Allen, you may proceed.
Weights and Measures Bill is Unnecessary and Potentially Harmful
Maryland is currently considering House Bill 969, which would require all electricity that is sold as a vehicle fuel to be measured and priced in units of kilowatt hours.
It sounds like a win for EV drivers. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could compare EV charger prices on an apples to apples basis? However, a closer look at the actual language reveals a redundant and potentially harmful piece of legislation that won’t even achieve its stated purpose.
In my formal testimony to the House Environment and Transportation Committee, I break down why this bill misses the mark by failing to address real world issues facing consumers.
EV charger under repair at the Howard County Library, Miller Branch
On November 3, 2025 the Howard County Council voted to grant a 3,600 square foot easement on County property to allow BGE to install an EV charging station at the Elkridge Library. The resolution, CR169-2025, had been tabled from the October legislative session. Council Chair Liz Walsh expressed concern about the general lack of parking at the library and the prospect of reserving some of the existing parking spaces for EV charging.
Proposed Amendment to Ensure Reliability
When the tabled resolution came up for a vote on Monday, Walsh moved to add an amendment to impose maintenance and functionality requirements for the BGE-owned charging station as a condition of the easement. The amendment, proposed by Walsh, stated, “BG&E shall maintain uptime standards for each new EV charging station installed at the Elkridge Library, in accordance with Section 7-904 of the Public Utilities Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland.” The cited statute is Maryland’s Electric Vehicle Charging Reliability Act (HB 834) which was signed into law in 2023 and requires 97% uptime in accordance with NEVI for the state’s utility-owned EV charging stations. The amendment further stated that failure to maintain uptime to standards would result in a civil penalty from the County of up to $1,000 for each violation.
Charger Reliability Concerns
Those of you who have EV charging stations in your own districts may notice that they don’t seem to be consistently working, and so this was our effort to ensure that in exchange for a loss of parking available to everyone, we actually had charging stations that worked. -Liz Walsh, Chair
The concerns that lead to the amendment are well-founded. Many BGE-owned EV charging stations on Howard County properties have had a poor track record for reliability. According to BGE’s own data submitted to the Public Service Commission, more than half (31 of the 58) BGE charging plugs located in Howard County failed to achieve 97% average uptime during the 3rd Quarter of 2025. Four BGE fast charger plugs located at the old County Courthouse never worked at all during the period from July 1 to September 30, 2025.
Education, Energy and the Environment Committee – February 18, 2025
The following is a transcript of my testimony to the Maryland Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee on SB 913, “Department of Agriculture – Public Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment – Registration, Regulation, and Oversight.”
This legislation would require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a program to test the accuracy of public electric vehicle supply equipment, ensure the equipment conforms to certain standards, and to adopt regulations that include requiring an uptime of 97% and establishing civil penalties for non-compliance.
It sounds like a reasonable idea at first. After all, we all want better charger reliability and effective use of public funds. But consider that Maryland already passed a 97% uptime law in 2023 with HB 834, yet it’s been sitting there, largely unenforced by the Public Service Commission while reliability has continued to get worse.
Instead of fixing things, it’s prompted the utilities that own the charging stations to ask for millions more in ratepayer money to replace chargers that aren’t even that old. Now, with SB 913 proposing to add more regulations, there’s a good chance it will raise public EV charging costs without offering much benefit in return. That’s why I’m not convinced that doubling down with the same “uptime” requirements is the right approach at this time.
Maryland already mandates 97% uptime for utility-owned chargers. However, when they fail to meet the standard, the Public Service Commission does not penalize them.
Instead, utilities seek approval to spend millions more to replace equipment that is sometimes less than two years old.
My name is Lanny Hartmann.
I was part of a group of 13 EV drivers that visited nearly every fast charger in the state of Maryland to see how they were working. We went to 304 sites and assessed over 1,000 charging ports. Here’s what we found. Tesla and Rivian, who operate just over half of the ports, were nearly flawless—only two were down. Among the rest of the chargers, 31% were dead, offline, or wouldn’t activate.
Why the discrepancy?
Tesla understands that a positive charging experience is crucial for car sales, so they developed their own Supercharger network, prioritizing reliability.
Now, consider the other half of the chargers we evaluated. Those are operated by various owners and networking providers, many funded through state grants or funded by ratepayers.
The various ownership models, differing business priorities combined with the challenge of maintaining and repairing equipment from third-party vendors all contribute to the performance disparity that we observed.
Maryland already mandates 97% uptime for utility-owned chargers. However, when they fail to meet the standard, the Public Service Commission does not penalize them. Instead, utilities seek approval to spend millions more to replace equipment that is sometimes less than two years old.
Despite the existing mandate and additional spending, the uptime has not significantly improved.
I suggest an amendment to remove the uptime regulations. The many exceptions make them difficult to enforce effectively.
Instead, this bill should focus on providing the Weights and Measures Department with the resources they need.
The people of Prince George’s County, Maryland may benefit from more electric vehicle charging infrastructure being installed in new residential and commercial construction, thanks to the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in Multifamily and Commercial Developments Act (CB-105-2024). The bill, which recently passed its first phase through the County Council, would require new and significantly renovated developments to include EV charging stations or “EV-Ready” infrastructure in parking lots and garages.
Key Amendments to the Bill
Initially, the legislation proposed that 20% of parking spaces be EV-Ready (pre-wired with a dedicated 40A circuit) and an additional 60% be EV-Capable (having panel capacity and raceways to support future installation). However, recent amendments reduced the EV-Ready requirement to 10%, and the EV-Capable mandate was removed entirely. Additionally, the start date for these requirements has been delayed from January 1, 2025, to January 1, 2027.
Supporting Access to EV Charging
Councilmember Wala Blegay, a key supporter of the bill, believes the legislation is crucial for making EV charging more accessible and convenient for residents. “I personally wanted to buy an EV but frankly didn’t because I saw there were limitations on where I could charge.”
Ensuring Charging Station Reliability
A key provision of the bill is the EVSE Maintenance Standard, which places responsibility on property owners to maintain EV charging stations in “good condition in all respects, including the functioning of equipment” ensuring that equipment remains functional and reliable—a growing concern in EV infrastructure.
Testifying for Maryland House Bill 1028 establishing the EVSE Workgroup.
New EVSE Workgroup Established by Maryland Legislature to Study Reliability Issues
The Maryland legislature recently passed, and Governor Wes Moore signed into law, SB951/HB1028, establishing the Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) Workgroup. This Workgroup has been tasked with developing a framework for reliability and reporting standards for EV charging stations. Additionally, the Workgroup will study and make recommendations regarding which government entities should ensure accountability for EV charging stations and propose regulations to address various issues outlined in the legislation. They must produce a report by November 1st.
First Meeting Announcement
The EVSE Workgroup will hold its inaugural meeting on July 9, 2024, from 1:30 – 3:00 PM. This virtual meeting will be hosted via WebEx. You can join the meeting using the following link: WebEx Meeting Link.
You can also dial in by phone at (202) 860-2110, using the access code 23476522148.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to provide verbal comments at the end of the meeting. A recording of the meeting will be available afterward on the Commission’s YouTube channel.
Agenda Highlights
The agenda for the first meeting includes the following key goals:
Statutory Goals:
Develop a regulatory framework for the items specified in SB951/HB1028.
Determine the responsible entities for implementing the regulatory framework.
Develop rules for determining EV charging station uptime and enforcement mechanisms.
Group Goals:
Identify what aspects the Workgroup should develop versus what should be handled by implementing agencies.
Decide which issues need to be codified in legislation, which should be determined through rulemaking, and which do not require formal rules.
Guiding Principles for Recommendations:
Ensure that EV charging stations used by the public operate as advertised.
Avoid unduly hampering the deployment of additional EVSE.
Meeting Notice and Agenda Links
You can access the meeting notice and agenda for the July 9, 2024, EVSE Workgroup meeting through the following links:
New Jersey bill S3102 Establishes uptime requirement for electric vehicle charging station incentive programs.
This statute directs the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to establish a requirement, as a condition of providing any incentive for the installation of electric vehicle service equipment pursuant to P.L.2019, c.362 (C.48:25-1 et seq.) or any other State law, that the station is operational at least 97 percent of the time, as measured on an annual basis. The law also directs the BPU to develop and implement a process to establish, monitor compliance with, and enforce this requirement. As used in the law, “electric vehicle service equipment” means the equipment, including the cables, cords, conductors, connectors, couplers, enclosures, attachment plugs, power outlets, switches and controls, network interfaces, and point of sale equipment and associated apparatus designed and used for the purpose of transferring energy from the electric supply system to a plug-in electric vehicle.
