An electric car driver calls the cops to the Minister of Energy after her employees blocked the charger in an ICE car

An electric car driver in Georgia called the police on US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm after her staff blocked a public charger with a gasoline-powered car to “book it” for her upcoming caravan of electric cars that she was using to highlight the White House’s investment in electric power. Electric car.

Earlier this summer, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm embarked on an electric vehicle road trip in the Southeast between Charlotte, North Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee, with her staff and an NPR journalist with the goal of “drawing attention to the billions of dollars the White House has pumped into “. The house flows on green energy and clean cars.

The federal government has announced $7.5 billion in funding to develop electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the U.S., with grants scheduled to be awarded soon.

They set out in a caravan of three electric vehicles — a Cadillac Lyriq, a Ford F-150 Lightning, and a Chevy Bolt (they didn’t mention EV or EUV).

Of course, that was for her, her staff, and the NPR journalist, as there was also a secret service in regular gas-powered SUVs following them.

Although the efforts may have been well-intentioned, they were not well implemented.

Granholm, a longtime electric vehicle driver, knew full well that the group would have some difficulties charging in the south, but it didn’t seem like they prepared for it well.

They realized that the Electrify America station in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia, would not have enough chargers for their collection of electric vehicles because one of the chargers was broken and the other was in use. So the solution was to send one of their employees ahead, in an internal combustion engine car, to stop at the charger once it was empty in order to “reserve” it for them.

the National Public Radio correspondent He explained what happened next:

In fact, the family who was trapped — on a sweltering day, with a child in the car — was so upset that they decided to get the authorities involved: they called the police.

The sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything. It is not illegal for a non-electric vehicle to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Department of Energy employees quickly calmed the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until the frustrated family and secretary had space to charge.

Many jurisdictions have adopted legislation to prevent this, and there are hefty fines that can come with banning EV stations; But not in Georgia, apparently.

Take Electric

The entire article is worth reading because it correctly describes the current problem of non-Tesla EVs when it comes to charging for long-distance travel.

Not everywhere – there are areas that are well covered – although some stations still have reliability issues, but the South is definitely not one of them.

I highlighted this in my EV road trip report in the South last year using the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Electrify America network.

But this is an error on the part of the secretary and/or her team – the article does not identify who had the idea.

If anything, the difficulty of the road trip is a good way to show that we need White House investment in this sector to support the growth of electric vehicles in the United States. If you’re going to do this, you can’t cheat by blocking charging stations.

You’re just waiting in line like everyone else.