President Joe Biden dispatched his top energy official to demonstrate to Americans how peachy the future will look when we’re all tooling around in electric cars.
It didn’t go well. Even the cops got involved.
As NPR reported on Sunday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her entourage recently spent four days in EVs, including a pricey Cadillac Lyriq that retails for more than $57,000 to start, “to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars.”
Granholm’s group planned to travel from Charlotte to Memphis on their adventure.
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“Things are happening fast. You are in the center of it. Imagine how big clean energy industries will be in 13 years,” Granholm told a group in South Carolina. “How much stronger our economy is going to grow. How many good-paying jobs we’re going to create — and where we are going to lead the world.”
The 13 years was a reference to photos she showed to how quickly New York City converted from horses to gas-powered automobiles at the turn of the 20th century.
As NPR reported, “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.
“It 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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NPR’s reporter highlighted other problems with an all-EV future.
One was the planning involved in trying to locate chargers before even heading out.
The number of chargers is limited, especially for non-Teslas. And as more drivers buy EVs, the problem will get worse, creating more scenarios like Granholm’s minions found in Georgia.
Most of the chargers that are available aren’t powerful enough. Wait times to charge can run from 20 minutes to an hour. And even if some were available, many didn’t work.
Another problem: the fastest, most reliable chargers belong to Tesla, which is owned by a guy the Biden administration is openly at war with, Elon Musk. NPR did note that Tesla is making more of its chargers usable by other brands.
As compiled by Twitchy.com, Granholm’s misadventure offered fodder for conservatives on X (formerly Twitter).
One was North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, a presidential candidate, who on X simply posted “Fail” along with NPR’s article.
Another user from Florida commented on the article with, “That’s why I bring this on my EV roadtrips,” along with a photo of a generator on a trailer.
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