Granholm drove from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee, in an attempt to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars, according to a report by NPR.
The U.S. Secretary of Energy even made passionate town hall stops along the way, advocating for reshaping Americans’ lives by transitioning from gas-powered vehicles to electric.
Granholm knew she might run into charging issues while on this road trip, but “probably didn’t expect anyone to call the cops,” reported NPR, whose reporter road along with her on the trip. The incident occurred when staffers attempted to reserve a charging spot for Granholm’s EV in advance of her arrival.
“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,” NPR reported.
So she had people running around setting things up for her to make her look good to this NPR reporter who was already going to write a puff piece blowing smoke up her ass...how'd that go?
This did not go over well, and a family that was blocked by the gasoline-powered car from using the charger called the police. Interestingly, the sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything about it, as it is not illegal in Georgia for a gas-powered vehicle to claim a charging location.
That shit is hilarious.
Another issue the energy secretary ran into was despite “painstakingly” mapping out the trip ahead of time to be sure there would be enough chargers, her team had to stop at hotels with slower “Level 2” plugs for overnight charging, and then pause at superfast chargers between cities.
Another problem was the fact that the chargers are simply not fast enough. In addition to that, the chargers are not reliable enough, the report added.
“Of course, having a superfast charger doesn’t do you any good if the dang thing doesn’t work,” NPR reported.
Damn if NPR refuses to sugarcoat it this may be one of the saddest PR stunts we've seen.
This bitch left her office for 4 days to do this? What a fucking waste of time and money.
This bitch left her office for 4 days to do this? What a fucking waste of time and money.
I disagree actually. If she had pulled it off the way she wanted, it would have been a waste of time and money. The fact that it ended up too bad for even NPR to fully sugarcoat it despite (or likely because of) having a whole team making arrangements in advance makes it a perfect thing to pull out when people talk about how great EVs are.
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
I HATE people with any power trying to abuse it for special treatment.
as it is not illegal in Georgia for a gas-powered vehicle to claim a charging location.
The funny thing is, I'd expect them to be making this illegal quickly. As it completely destroys any and all attempts at their "infrastructure" installations. Especially as most people won't do it, so these are basically always free and available parking anywhere you go.
Probably wouldn't be hard to expand the parking laws we already have to cover it either.
That just proves how hard they are pushing this beyond reasonability. When even their own laws already on the books haven't had the time to catch up to the change.
This shit is actually pretty funny.
So she had people running around setting things up for her to make her look good to this NPR reporter who was already going to write a puff piece blowing smoke up her ass...how'd that go?
That shit is hilarious.
Damn if NPR refuses to sugarcoat it this may be one of the saddest PR stunts we've seen.
This bitch left her office for 4 days to do this? What a fucking waste of time and money.
I disagree actually. If she had pulled it off the way she wanted, it would have been a waste of time and money. The fact that it ended up too bad for even NPR to fully sugarcoat it despite (or likely because of) having a whole team making arrangements in advance makes it a perfect thing to pull out when people talk about how great EVs are.
I HATE people with any power trying to abuse it for special treatment.
The funny thing is, I'd expect them to be making this illegal quickly. As it completely destroys any and all attempts at their "infrastructure" installations. Especially as most people won't do it, so these are basically always free and available parking anywhere you go.
But in this case, they were the ones doing it.
I have a feeling if someone did it to the Energy Secretary and she couldn't get a charging spot it would be illegal within 48 hours.
Probably wouldn't be hard to expand the parking laws we already have to cover it either.
That just proves how hard they are pushing this beyond reasonability. When even their own laws already on the books haven't had the time to catch up to the change.