h/t Dr. Willie Soon; Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s 4 day EV celebration road trip backfired, after the Sheriff was called by a young family desperate to get their baby home.
Electric cars have a road trip problem, even for the secretary of energy
September 10, 20236:00 AM ET
…
Granholm’s trip through the southeast, from Charlotte, N.C., to Memphis, Tenn., was intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars. The administration’s ambitious energy agenda, if successful, could significantly cut U.S. emissions and reshape Americans’ lives in fundamental ways, including by putting many more people in electric vehicles.
…
But between stops, Granholm’s entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia.
Her advance team realized there weren’t going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.
That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?
In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: They called the police.
The sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything. It’s not illegal for a non-EV to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Energy Department staff scrambled to smooth over the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until both the frustrated family and the secretary had room to charge.
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Read more: https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1187224861/electric-vehicles-evs-cars-chargers-charging-energy-secretary-jennifer-granholm
How heartless. Can any of you imagine keeping a young family and baby waiting in the sweltering heat? I can’t count the number of times when I waved mum and kids ahead at a supermarket checkout line, especially if the kids are in any kind of distress.
If only there was a way to recharge vehicles quickly. Then there would be no reason for people to get distressed and block each other while fighting over a handful of charging spots, they could just recharge their vehicle quickly and drive off, with minimal delay and inconvenience to other motorists.
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Her response to poor people when gas went over $3? Buy a $50,000 EV! Jennifer Granholm is the Marie Antoinette of energy secretaries.
There are fines up to A$3,200 for ‘ICE-ing’ in Oz
Drivers face steep fines for parking non-electric vehicles in electric vehicle charging stations
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-15/drivers-steep-fines-iceing-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/102102554
“they could just recharge their vehicle quickly“
This looks like disinformation to me
I think there is a (slightly) hidden reference to ICE options.
I used to think that the Evil (Democrat) Party just had politicians fail up (see: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, John Kerry, and a thousand others). But Granholm, formerly the worst governor in America during her ineptitude in office, has proven beyond any doubt that what really matters is how effective you are in furthering the grift.
It really has become a circus in the Democrat Party.
Roll up roll up, see the bearded lady, be amazed at the dogs riding ponies, watch the memory man recite the whole of a sentence unaided…..etc.
This point may have been made already so forgive me if I repeat an earlier comment.
As the Sherriff has now confirmed there is no law preventing an ICE vehicle parking in an EV charging spot, I suspect a few ‘activists’ might decide to indulge in blocking the EV chargers by legally parking their ICE truck there.
Just saying.
No need to go out of our way to inconvenience EV owners, people don’t deserve to be punished for making a bad purchase choice. I feel sorry for the young family, sometimes life serves us some hard lessons.
There may be no “need” to go out of your way, but it’s fun.
“Granholm’s trip through the southeast, from Charlotte, N.C., to Memphis, Tenn., was intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars.”
Clean car? Too lazy to say electric vehicle?
No it’s a clean car because the flunkeys wash and wax it every evening 🙂
“The administration’s ambitious energy agenda, if successful, could significantly cut U.S. emissions and reshape Americans’ lives in fundamental ways…”
The Constitution doesn’t give the government the right to reshape American lives- especially in “fundamental ways”.
The Constitution doesn’t give the government the right
not that it matters anymore.
The real issue here is that today, those elected to high office or appointed to senior civil service roles no longer see themselves as servants of the people, but as our rulers and in their arrogant, inflated senses of importance and entitlement, and impunity from accountability for even the most grievous failures and incompetence, see themselves as entitled to virtually monarchial levels of privilege over the rest of us mere commoners.
And that is why they (and the embedded journalist who wrote the report) felt entitled to block an available charger, saw nothing wrong in having done so and are not reported to have offered any apology..
I think you are being very unfair! How else can an EV driver guarantee charging their car?
Kite, key, lightning. Just sayin’.
Jennifer can come to my hometown. We have four EV chargers here at one location, and although I don’t drive by them every day, every time I do drive by them they are empty. I have never seen an EV parked there getting juiced up.
I don’t think we have many EV’s around here. I saw my first Tesla just the other day.
Why does “Try that in a small town” come to mind?
“How heartless.” No. They trying to push this virtue signalling BS onto everyone else as well, putting everyone in danger. Let them feel the pain and maybe they will wake up. If not , Darwin awards are available to merit worthy cases.
Wow, she looks like a right bitch. Just sayin. Judging by appearances an’ all.
Why did they have to park an ICE vehicle in the spot if her entourage was made up of EVs?
(Just park one of their other EVs in the spot.)
Where did they get an ICE vehicle if the entourage was really made up of EVs?
Was this trip virtue signaling, a PR stunt or both?
This is the same idiot Secretary of Energy who in March of this year made the colossally incompetent statement that the U.S. could “learn” how to address “climate change” by doing what China is doing.
China the country that has more than twice the CO2 emissions than the U.S. and consumes 56% of the world’s coal with that number still climbing while getting less than 5% of its total energy from wind and solar.
See https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/13/bidens-secretary-of-energy-says-u-s-can-learn-from-china-on-climate-change/
One might wonder just how many gasoline and diesel vehicles were required to support the convoy, and what were the ratios of fuel/electric miles covered and personnel transported.
Considering the makeup of the electrical production mix along those Southern states, someone could probablycalculate the average amount of work done, per passenger mile, by coal, petroleum, natural gas, and “renewab;e” and get a pretty good idea of what the actual cost was in CO2. Even though this was a stunt, analysis is potentially quite revealing to the real operations cost of EVs vs self-powered vehicles, in terms of carbon and in terms of passenger time over distance.
These comments sound like a bunch of horse traders moaning about the iron version a hundred years ago. Electric cars are a great idea. It’s the batteries that suck. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slot_car
No. Electric cars are a “great idea” when you have plenty of cheap and readily available electricity — once you’ve solved the battery problem of child labor and environmental degradation. Fixed it for you.
It seems the offending ICE vehicle identifies as electric.
Right on cue when questioned about the EV trip debacle this clueless Secretary of Energy threw her staff under the bus blaming them for how they handled the trips planning and execution. What a surprise – not.
BCAA has just announced they are adding F150 EV’s to their fleet.
I replied to the email asking them how the Lightning will tow my 9000 lb F250.