House panel advances bill barring local mandates for electric‑vehicle charging infrastructure

BOISE — The House Business Committee on Thursday voted to send House Bill 86 to the full House with a “do pass” recommendation after a divided debate over local control and future infrastructure costs.

House Bill 86, sponsored by State Representative Joe Palmer (R‑Meridian), would prohibit cities and counties from requiring EV charging equipment or conduit as a mandatory part of building permits. "I'm not against electric cars," Palmer said. "Businesses absolutely have the opportunity to do this. Government entities, whoever is over that government entity has the opportunity to do it in their local in their location. We're working at less than 10% of the vehicles here... We're not stopping anybody from being able to do it. We're just not forcing them anymore."

Supporters of local control and…