US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm at a ribbon cutting event for a Revel electric vehicle charging superhub in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, US. (Image: Reuters/Representative)
US Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, was accused of being out of touch with problems that affect EV owners as she blocked an EV charger to refuel her EV convoy.
An electric vehicle owner from Georgia called the police on US Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, accusing her staff of blocking a public charger with a gasoline car to reserve it.
Ironically, she blocked the charger to “reserve” it for her roadtrip where she would use a convoy of electric vehicles (EVs) to highlight the Biden administration’s commitment towards electric vehicles.
The incident occurred earlier this summer when Jennifer Granholm set out on an EV road trip in the southeast between Charlotte, North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee with her staff and a NPR journalist.
The aim was to draw attention to the steps the Biden administration has taken and billions it has invested into green energy and clean cars.
The Biden administration announced $7.5 billion in funding to advance EV charging infrastructure in the US and the grants will be given soon. Granholm and her staff set out in a convoy of three EVs – a Cadillac Lyriq, a Ford F-150 Lightning, and a Chevy Bolt. It remains unclear if the Chevy Volt was an electric vehicle or not.
However, there were Secret Service agents in regular petrol-powered SUVs following them. The electric cars were for her and her staff.
The group faced criticism for not executing the plan well. A report by electric vehicle and tech news website Electrek said even though the effort was well-intentioned, the group failed to take into account that they would encounter difficulties when it comes to charging in the region that they were travelling and yet failed to prepare for that.
They were in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia, when they realised that the town’s Electrify America station does not have enough chargers for their EV convoy. One of the chargers there was broken and another was being used.
They decided to send one of the staffer in the petrol-powered car, aka internal combustion engine vehicle, to park at the charger once it is free and “reserve” it for them.
Several areas in the US, barring the town they were in, have introduced laws to prevent blocking of EV chargers. However, luckily, the US Energy Secretary did not incur any hefty fines for her actions.
