Posted on 12/05/2023 5:21:23 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Build Back Better is a bust.
We all know that. Nothing gets built, and nothing gets better.
'Congress provided $7.5B for electric vehicle chargers. Built so far: Zero.' 'Two years later, the program has yet to install a single charger.' From @politico
https://t.co/0PY4VNcjbO— Byron York (@ByronYork) December 5, 2023
Still, you would think that if the Biden Administration decided something was a priority, like getting Americans out of internal combustion engine cars and into EVs, some movement toward that goal would have been made.
You would be wrong.
The true purpose of the “Inflation Reduction Act” was to pass the Green New Deal under another name, and one of the key claims being made by environmentalists is that the phase-out of the ICE is vital to reducing greenhouse gases. That’s the ostensible reason for so much money being put into EV technology, including the $7.5 billion set aside to install EV chargers.
Sprinkling EV chargers across America is supposed to reduce range anxiety, a key factor holding back EV sales. Refueling infrastructure for ICE vehicles is in great shape–to call the market mature is an understatement. It’s easy to gas up your car in 5 minutes and drive another 300-500 miles without worry.
Not so with EVs, although Tesla has done a good job providing charging technology for their cars in the areas of the country where people are most likely to use their products.
The investment in EV chargers was supposed to change that. But as with all things Biden, the rhetoric and reality couldn’t be much farther from each other. Not a single EV charger has yet to be installed.
“It has been frustrating to say the least,” Arcady Sosinov, founder and CEO of charging manufacturer FreeWire Technologies, said of the slow pace of the rollout.
Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure package into law in 2021 with $7.5 billion specifically directed toward EV chargers, with an eye toward achieving his goal of building 500,000 chargers in the United States by 2030.
The United States has around 180,000 chargers today, according to the Energy Department. That includes 41,000 of the type of fast chargers that can alleviate the dreaded “range anxiety” of a long-distance road trip in an electric vehicle.
In a June study, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory projected the U.S. will need 1.2 million public chargers by 2030 to meet charging demand, including 182,000 fast chargers.
Administration officials insist the pace at which they are rolling out the infrastructure law’s charging funds is to be expected, given the difficulty of creating a brand-new program in every state and marshaling the private sector to meet complex reliability and performance requirements for each federally-funded station.
Beege has been following the disaster that is Biden’s EV policy, so I won’t get into the weeds on how counterproductive it has been. It is a classic case of bureaucrats acting on their belief that writing rules, passing laws, and spending money somehow can substitute for market demand, engineering know-how, and entrepreneurialism.
All you need to know is that Joe Biden’s favorite EV is the GMC Hummer, which in two years has sold fewer than 500 cars.
Unlike some conservatives, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the concept of electric cars. There is a good use case for them, and as a second car, I think one would be excellent to have and a lot of fun to drive.
That’s why there is a market for them, just like motorcycles, bicycles, and golf carts—different vehicles for different needs.
So let the market decide how many get built, where the chargers go, and when to build them.
As it is the government has proven they haven’t a clue about any of these things. They can’t even install a single charger with $7.5 billion to do so.
IIRC-—THE CHARGERS THAT LOS ANGELES CITY COUNCIL AUTHORIZED PAYMENT FOR ALL HAVE CHRONIC PROBLEMS WITH THE CORDS BEING CUT & REMOVED.
WE KNOW where 10% went——
That’s less then 15K per Congress Critter. That’s not enough for them to have a good weekend. Then divide that by 3 years and it’s not even chicken feed to them. we can’t expect them to be bothered with such piddeling small amounts of money.
Now that 5 Trillion in Plannedemic money that’s some they can really celebrate with.
EV chargers....
https://www.instructables.com/Hamster-Wheel-Standing-Desk/
work in progress....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt084vYqbnY
This whole environment and climate change BS is to destroy the USA as it was.
Other than the very rich Democrats, most all other Democrats and RINOs are destined to die an early death. Drugs, lack of food, and services, it doesn’t matter, they will be gone.
Only people left will be Republicans and Libertarians as they do productive work for their betters.
Service jobs (Democrats specialty) don’t produce anything.
As I’ve said before, when you’re pumping gas into the fill tube of your gas-powered car, you’re physically transferring energy at the rate of about 3MW, or around 4000 hp.
That means that even if it was possible for a “fast charge” EV charger to fill up you car in three minutes or so, you’d need the equivalent of a freight train engine somewhere to provide the electric power.
Oh, and the cables that would connect to your car would be about two inches in diameter. And you’d need two of them.
And that’s accounting for Carnot losses in your car’s internal combustion engine.
Good.
No chargers unless there is a gas pump too.
U wanna drive an ev? Pay for your juice like the rest of us do.
Not on our dime!!
Same thing with the infrastructure bill. Infrastructure building actually went down. Maybe 5 years from now we’ll be building a lot of bridges and tunnels, or maybe the money will go into administrative costs and environmental and DEI studies.
“...you’re physically transferring energy at the rate of about 3MW, or around 4000 hp...”
Thanks.
Good numbers to know.
“....500 miles without worry...”
Try 650-750 mi. with 3 vehicles I own. [16x45->720, 36x22->792]
I suspect that the $3 billion awarded recently by the Biden White House to the California High-Speed Rail Project that benefits Gov. Newsom and Nancy Pelosi came from that.
They’ve put the potential of electrical vehicles being viable behind by at least a decade - maybe more. If all of these taxpayer funds were going to spent on electric vehicles, it should have been spent on R&D making the technology smaller, safer, and more efficient. Not pushing the manufacture and purchase of a technology not yet ready for prime time.
Now go look for the money. I bet it is gone.
“Don’t be so suspicious. First you’ve got to hire consultants. Then you’ve got to hire coordinators to coordinate all the consultants. And then you’ve got to hire presenters to put everything on PowerPoint slides.
None of these folks work cheap.
Oh, and then there’s the graft, bribes, and kickbacks. That too.”
They must all be Democrat donors, and of the charging stations that get built, at least half must be built in historically marginalized or underserved communities in the name of equity.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with the concept of electric cars. There is a good use case for them, and as a second car, I think one would be excellent to have and a lot of fun to drive.”
Trump is Ok with them as a second car. He said they are good for going to the candy store.
This reminds me of Solyndra.
The government is as inefficient and unreliable and expensive as it gets.
No doubt a bunch of highly paid bureaucrats - all Democrats - have been hired to spend the $7.5b. We can expect most of the money will go to all expense paid meetings in luxury vacation destinations.
Can’t wait to start seeing roadside stands sell compressed electricity for EV’s.
Can’t wait to start seeing roadside stands sell cans of compressed electricity for EV’s.
Fixed
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