BOONE COUNTY, Ky. — The Boone County Fiscal Court voted 4-0 against approving electric vehicle charging stations Tuesday night after it debated whether to approve an agreement with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for the design of new stations. 

What You Need To Know

  • The federal government identified Boone County as an electric vehicle charging station desert

  • The county had considered using federal grant money to build nine charging stations, which the county would maintain and sell electricity from; however, the Boone County Fiscal Court voted against it 4-0  

  • The project would have cost the county about $400,000 to build

It comes after the federal government identified Boone County as an electric vehicle charging station desert.

The county considered using federal grant money to build nine charging stations, which it would have would maintained and sold electricity from. The project would have cost the county about $400,000 to build. The rest would have been covered by a grant through the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, or OKI.

Commissioner Jesse Brewer said he didn't want it, and neither did most constituents he heard from.

“Overwhelmingly, they say they don’t want this. They don’t think the government, and I agree with them. They don’t think the government should be in the private sector business. Government has a role to play. Government should have a very limited role in our lives,” Brewer said. “And the fact that the government needs to start building and owning the charging stations is concerning. We don’t own gas stations, we don’t own convenient stores, we shouldn’t be competing in private sector. And if there’s a void for a particular type of product from the private sector, there’s probably a good reason for it.”

Judge Executive Gary Moore previously indicated he was in favor of passing the measure, saying the county could be penalized by OKI for future projects by not passing it.

Brewer said he was confident it wouldn't pass.

“There’s gonna be a lot more of these initiatives coming around the tri-state and around the state of Kentucky,” he said.

Recently, OKI announced it approved over $11 million to build 43 electric vehicle charging stations across the Cincinnati region as part of the federal “clean air” program.

According to OKI, EV adoption is surging across the U.S., with more than 3.5 million EVs on the road in 2023.

But Brewer said people haven’t been as quick to adopt in Boone County.

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