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| Economy |
| The Flaw In Biden's Electric Vehicle Charger Plan |
| 2022-07-30 |
| [Oilprice.com] The Biden administration has earmarked $5 billion ready to be disbursed to states with EV charging infrastructure plans in place. States are on board with the shift to EVs and are indeed making plans for charging infrastructure. But the people at the end of the line, those who will host the chargers, are having misgivings. Utility Dive reported this week that convenience store owners have sounded the alarm about the EV infrastructure bill, saying the legislation behind it is discouraging private investment, which is going to be essential for the successful shift to EVs. The report cited Doug Kantor, general counsel of the National Association of Convenience Stores, as saying that the sector was concerned about turning in a profit from EV chargers in the current political framework regarding these. "There is no way to build out the infrastructure that’s needed to charge vehicles without private investment. To just do it with public money, that’s not going to happen," Doug Kantor said. Retailers’ main worries have to do with demand charges and the option for regulated utilities to own EV chargers. According to the NACS, the charges need to be reduced or eliminated, and fair competition between regulated utilities and private businesses in EV charging needs to be ensured. This is the latest chapter in the EV infrastructure story unfolding in the United States under the ambitious Biden administration’s plans to electrify transport. Per these plans, the country should have half a million chargers installed in the coming years, for which the administration allocated $5 billion. Bold emphasis added. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #4 TANSTAAFL |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2022-07-30 09:10 |
| #3 Son is a Metro-Atlanta area firefighter. He has handled a dozen or so EV fires. If I understood him correctly. The general process is to Surround, Contain, protect the surround area and watch it burn itself into a Hazmat Environment Mess. YAA December 19, 2021 - Justin Fischer = "EV battery fires require A LOT more water to extinguish. ... Some fires have needed 30,000 gallons of water to extinguish. ... Once the fire appears fully extinguished, there’s a chance it could still flare up, even days later. Towing services and junkyards are advised to park damaged electric vehicles at least 50 feet from other vehicles in the yard. " An EV with a typical 60 kWh battery pack, will take 60 hours 2.5 DAYS to fully recharge and still only have a 200 to 320 miles driving range. The amount of energy used to produce, power and recharge an EV, is something like 3.5 times more than needed to make and use a gallon gas. Which refills in under 10 mins and drives 300+ miles per tank fill. Plus, we have not discussed Environment issues of mining Rare Earths and production for the EV battery and disposal at end of the currently seen 5-6 year lifecycle. |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2022-07-30 09:02 |
| #2 Lithium-ion batteries burning are considered a 'Class B' fire (as the batteries contain liquid electrolytes that provide a conductive pathway), so a standard 'ABC' fire extinguisher should be used. Since lithium-ion batteries aren’t made with metallic lithium, a Class D dry powder extinguisher would not be effective. Even so, with the larger batteries, it takes a LOT of extinguishing chemicals to put them out. Your tiny kitchen extinguisher wouldn't do it. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2022-07-30 08:31 |
| #1 See also: Connecticut grounding its entire fleet of electric buses after one of them catches fire (and apparently lithium fires are just about impossible to put out.) https://www.nhregister.com/metro/article/Battery-causes-CT-electric-bus-to-burst-into-17324601.php |
| Posted by: Tom 2022-07-30 07:13 |