US Congress provided $7.5B for electric vehicle chargers. Two years later and built so far: Zero

submitted by SoCo from politico.com

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[–]cunninglingus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Indeed. I think it's an excellent article because it also includes an explanation that a complex project like this will require a few years to implement. Most states do not have the ability to quickly meet the requirements for the new chargers, but this money will help them get started with this kind of project, which will be necessary. Correct, no money is spent at this stage, but by next year there should be plans in place in some states.

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I don't understand how a "charger" is complicated, since it's literally 19th century technology (1886). I guess building one that doesn't kill a drunk redneck on coke is more difficult, but they have have over one hundred years.

I agree that the article isn't all bad, but the title is clickbait.

Electricification has always been the only option for humanity. If you look any Star Trek episode, it's not like they are running on oil and gas. I am a bit disappointed that nuclear energy is mostly used by the big boys (aircraft carriers and submarines) and China. I think one of the problems with nuclear energy is that there is no good life cycle management and many of the people "selling" nuclear aren't honest about all the downsides. From my understand scientifically there is no large amount of waste left anymore after 300 years or so if you apply everything humanity knows about it, although there are some nuclear proliferation risks with some fuel cycles. I don't know all the details right now, but I cared about this a couple of years back and my assessment is that if humanity wants to become serious about nuclear power, they could.

Let's just hope that fusion ever really works and bring us into an era of abundance of energy (or well, at least compared to now), because it's not like there is a limited need for energy.

[–]cunninglingus 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yes - and there are other, better articles about this. The industry and infrastructure does not yet exist in many states for this kind of development of a network of DC Fast Chargers that have at least four ports capable of simultaneously charging four EVs and each must be at or above 150 kW. Manufacturers must be in the US and the charging stations cannot require memberships or other problematic profit-schemed. It's the result of a rare bi-partisan bill that past Congress, and one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the US.

[–]binaryblob 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Is it a big deal from a permit perspective (or perhaps you need to get consent from all the ground owners) to lay a cable from point A to point B in the US assuming you have a cable and a company that can lay one?

I am just looking at society and wondering what the fuck they want. If they want to "save the environment", just fucking bulldoze everything that's in the way. If the fucking Mount Rushmore National Memorial is in the way, just cut it out and move it 10 miles away, but I just don't get why we care so much about the "rights of people" as long as you don't do them monetary damage. Just don't allow lawsuits, but properly compensate people for them being annoyed with excavators (if even relevant, since modern techniques don't even use those).

If they don't want to save the environment, then it would be faster to just launch all the nukes right away.