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Turning Off All 8k EV Chargers at All Federal Government Buildings
- greatgib 2y agoThis is so much Idiocracy going live. I understand being against anything woke movement and not caring at the environment for economic growth purpose. But here it is counterproductive. It is like killing a new better technology when it makes sense and bring you growth. Like cutting budgets for disease and cancer treatments research!
- mitthrowaway2 2y agoNext week: "removing the catalytic converters from 400,000 federal government vehicles"
- alexose 2y agoDon’t give them any ideas…
- bloopernova 2y agoHonestly wondering if the current US president would try to bring back leaded gas.
- InsideOutSanta 2y ago"I love the poorly educated!" So I guess that's a yes on lead.
- WesolyKubeczek 2y agoBut it's gonna be less lead for bullets?
- consp 2y agoThat's going to be great. Many dead cars by the side of the road, and not moving cars is good for the environment. (yes the cat will also be destroyed but as a bonus so will your o2 sensors and possibly the rest of the engine with it, turbo's also do not like it)
- 6SixTy 2y agoThis is real. There's a bunch of federal vehicles that don't have cats in them, or the equivalent systems for diesel from the factory. They are exempt from emissions standards.
- calvinmorrison 2y agoOr license plates!!!
- CharlieDigital 2y agoPractically handing the future of automobiles to China. ICE has peaked as a technology; EVs are still nascent. Silly to hold back adoption and growth for nonsensical reasons.
- InsideOutSanta 2y agoThis was the biggest culture shock the first time I went to China a few years ago. At least half the cars are electric (you can identify them by the license plate). 90% of the electric cars I saw were from brands I'd never seen before. There were at least a dozen different brands that seemed to be super popular. I rode in a bunch of them, and they're all super nice inside, with large screens and well-made interior. Western car brands are about to get a lot of competition.
- 6SixTy 2y agoWord is that China makes getting a license plate for an ICE extremely hard to get, while EVs get basically a free pass. I don't know about any direct subsidies but I wouldn't doubt that there's something there.
- Symbiote 2y agoYes, a former colleague who moved back to Beijing said she'd wait about 18 months for the licence to buy an electric car, but about 5-6 years for an ICE car.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoThere were both direct subsidies and policies put in place -- such as the license places (which are otherwise hard to get in major cities like Beijing because of efforts to reduce air pollution which was really bad; so for example, you can only drive your car every other day depending on the last digit of your license place (even/odd). However EVs were exempt from this restriction immediately making them extremely popular and cost-effective.
- canucker2016 2y ago
- aaronbrethorst 2y agoI understand being against anything woke movement How do you define the term "woke"?
- pstuart 2y agoFor most these days, it's "stuff liberal love that I hate". The redefining it from the original "awareness to systemic racism" should go on the books of Propaganda's Greatest Hits.
- 6stringmerc 2y agoTo be fair, if people die sooner from obesity/cancer issues the economic benefit can be measured easily. An aging population, not in the workforce, demanding subsidies is…not efficient. If they were corralled into large group homes, it would be less detrimental financially, but culturally and ethically in the USA this notion is highly problematic (yet valid if efficiency and savings are the primary drivers of discussion and action).
- malfist 2y agoWhat's the plan for EV's owned by the government? I guess maybe charge at Tesla superchargers? Edit: read the article. Apparently sell them all off regardless of the cost Sounds great for government efficiency
- _DeadFred_ 2y agoNone of this is about efficiency. They have been very public in stating their goals prior to taking power. This is more in line with their goals: "We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrative-state-trump-bannon.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati...
- tromp 2y agoDepartment Of Government Exhaustion.
- jimkleiber 2y agoDepartment of Government Elimination
- dwaltrip 2y agoExploitation
- atmavatar 2y agoDepartment of Grift and Embezzlement The fact that most of the IGs were fired before DOGE was given access to anything and the fact that there are no auditors involved is a strong signal that we'll find out years from now that rather than save taxpayers any money while shutting things down, DOGE almost certainly funneled a tremendous amount of money into certain individuals' pockets.
- viraptor 2y ago> https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati... https://archive.is/oyTRT https://archive.is/oyTRT
- LocalH 2y agoThe disrespect that this administration is showing for the entire governing process disgusts me. We'll be spending decades undoing the damage these clowns are doing.
- dragontamer 2y agoMaybe, maybe not. People underestimate how fast the Government moves when there is consensus. The issue with Americans is that we have rarely any true concensus. I definitely feel bad for the career civil servants and fear for the loss of their expertise. It will take decades before indiviuals can replicate their job at any level of efficiency. But Government could hire more workers to do the jobs of the old experts, or maybe hire them back or even contract to them as consultants (at grossly worse prices but I don't think any of these experts are dead. Just distrustful and maybe a bit vengeful about the loss of their work environments). Nothing going on here is permanent loss. Its 'only' a gross level of inefficiency and waste. But if we all agree that 2024 was a better year than 2025, it isn't a big deal to rebuild to the status quo. ------- What is truly gone is out soft power across the world. Europe won't have a damn reason to trust us for decades.
- cyberge99 2y agoGovernment is supposed to work slowly and thoughtfully. It provides stability. Much like a pendulum that swings back and forth. This tipping over the edge in one direction is not a good development at all.
- dragontamer 2y agoNo. Government is composed of many parts. The executive moves quickly and is designed to move quickly. Congress and Courts are designed to be somewhat slow and deliberate. That's why all this change in the President / Executive branch is happening so quickly.
- supercanuck 2y agohttps://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust-in-government-1958-2024/ https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/06/24/public-trust...
- ArtTimeInvestor 2y agoHow is the efficiency of delivering fuel to cars compared to burning fuel centrally, generating electricy and delivering it to cars via the grid? Edit: From the answers, it looks like efficiency is better when the fuel is burned centrally. So what can be the benefit of turning off charging stations? If you want to strengthen the fuel industry, wouldn't it be better to burn the fuel centrally and feed the electricity into the grid?
- armada651 2y agoYou can't really discount the electricity from other sources on the grid in that equation. An EV is also receiving power from sources like wind and solar unlike a non-hybrid gas-powered car. There's nothing more efficient than not burning the fuel at all.
- toomuchtodo 2y agoEVs always win, even when powered by coal, because of the thermal efficiency of larger generators. The grid gets cleaner/low carbon over time (and cheaper per kwh, broadly speaking, due to the lower cost of renewables vs legacy thermal), a combustion vehicle burns petroleum for its entire service life. The search keywords to surface this are "well to wheel efficiency." Electric vehicles use half the energy of gas-powered vehicles - https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/electric-vehicles-use-half-the-energy-of-gas-powered-vehicles/ https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/01/electric-vehicles... Levelized Cost of Energy+ - https://www.lazard.com/research-insights/levelized-cost-of-energyplus/ https://www.lazard.com/research-insights/levelized-cost-of-e... Well-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions for cars by powertrains - https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/well-to-wheels-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-cars-by-powertrains https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/well-to-wheel... Where Coal Is Retiring, and Hanging On, in the U.S. - https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/06/climate/coal-plants-retirement.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/06/climate/coal-... | https://archive.today/Egwuc https://archive.today/Egwuc New solar plants expected to support most U.S. electric generation growth - https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64364 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=64364 > So what can be the benefit of turning off charging stations? If you want to strengthen the fuel industry, wouldn't it be better to burn the fuel centrally and feed the electricity into the grid? Spite and prioritizing the oil and gas industry for economic reasons. Which is somewhat humorous, as China is building EVs so fast, they are impairing the global oil market price. The US government simply cannot take enough action to assist the petroleum industry (for economic gains) to compensate for China's impact on the global oil market. Trump wants more drilling, but the oil market is already saturated - https://grist.org/energy/trump-wants-more-drilling-but-the-oil-market-is-already-saturated/ https://grist.org/energy/trump-wants-more-drilling-but-the-o... China’s Oil Demand Is Vanishing Faster Than It Looks - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-01-19/china-s-oil-demand-is-vanishing-faster-than-it-looks https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-01-19/china-... | https://archive.today/BMo4N https://archive.today/BMo4N IEA Says Oil Demand Growth Weakness to Continue on China and EVs - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-21/iea-says-oil-demand-growth-weakness-to-continue-on-china-evs https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-21/iea-says-... | https://archive.today/2aN1j https://archive.today/2aN1j (50% of vehicles sold in 2024 in China were battery electric or plug in hybrids, "NEVs") > Some 60% of vehicles bought under the program last year came with a plug, and China’s car market is already at a tipping point: Battery and plug-in hybrid cars, locally termed New Energy Vehicles or NEVs, in December made up 49.4% of car sales, and 46.8% across the full year. Conventional and normal hybrid cars will be a minority of the market this year, and the only way is down: Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that NEVs will hit 68% market share in 2027 and 81% in 2030.
- exe34 2y agoI'm guessing Elon hasn't been informed yet and this decision will change soon? or do teslas charge at different points and therefore will end up being the only electric vehicles that will be used by the government and their workers?
- bloopernova 2y agoMy guess is that elon doesn't care about tesla except as a share price.
- riffraff 2y agoBut surely this impacts share price? If the government can't own EVs that makes the addressable market smaller.
- bloopernova 2y agoThese days many stocks seem to be detached from reality-based price pressures. Some stocks have more in common with crypto speculation than with funding a company.
- cyberge99 2y agoExactly. If you look at all the recent Tesla earnings calls, they have fallen flat or below expectations and the price had skyrocketed because of “guidance” and promises of future robots, or ai, or whatever. It is not grounded in reality at all.
- saalweachter 2y agoThese are almost certainly J1772/CCS chargers, not NACS.
- rstuart4133 2y agoIf they rip out their chargers doesn't it mean they have to charge their EV's somewhere else? That somewhere else could well be a Tesla charger, which gives Elon a cut for every kWh they buy. I'm sure he's pretty confident the federal government will be predominately buying EV's in a few years years regardless of what else happens.
- dkjaudyeqooe 2y agoIn this version of efficiency nothing works and we paid in full for it.
- mindslight 2y agoWhen government money is spent on activity that benefits the wider population (or even worse, eliminates a niche that could be used to extract wealth!), that is wasted money not going into the oligarchs pockets. Hence the call for efficiency - to eliminate this waste.
- Tarq0n 2y agoThat doesn't make sense though, oligarchs can extract wages just as well.
- mindslight 2y agoWe've gotten here because enough is never enough, right?
- cgcrob 2y ago[flagged]
- bloopernova 2y agoI wonder whether this will have an impact on the commercial charge station rollouts across the USA? Or an impact on EV sales in the USA?
- readthenotes1 2y agoIf the government charge station rollout is any indication, no one will notice anything but amazement at money squandered
- kohbo 2y agoThere's no point in explaining to you how wrong you are if haven't figured it out by yourself at this point
- hermannj314 2y ago[flagged]
- Symbiote 2y agoA very easy search shows that private users of the charging point must reimburse the government: https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/11674 https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/11674
- hermannj314 2y agoI misinterpreted the line from the article that said private access and inferred this meant free access, I did not do a search yo confirm so thank you for correcting me. It is very common in the US for EV owners to get free parking, free charging but I was wrong to assume.
- Swoerds 2y ago[flagged]
- Swoerds 2y ago[flagged]
- bloopernova 2y agoThe USA is big enough that people won't travel to the capital. And a significant part of the USA is cheering these actions. Many from ignorance, some from malice, and some are true believers.
- Swoerds 2y ago[flagged]
- bloopernova 2y agoYou assume because I answered you that I'm passively accepting what is going on? I don't understand your train of thought.
- galangalalgol 2y agoAnd the benefits the USA has vs Hungary in the for mof stronger checks also leads to a wait and see attitude. We are all hoping the judiciary will stop the flagrant violations of law, and that some how two more years of foreign brainwashing in the media,that will now be completely uncontested will somehow lead to candidates that actually respect the rule of law. If the judiciary appears to put up a good front for long enough before capitulating, and the legislature pretends they might stop the worst abuses for long enough, everyone will just be comfortable with the new normal.
- Marsymars 2y ago> The USA is big enough that people won't travel to the capital. Eh, Canada had the convoy occupation in Ottawa with comparable geographical challenges.
- readthenotes1 2y agoYou mean like the orange jacket protests, or the annual burning of cars festivals?
- timewizard 2y ago[flagged]
- pstuart 2y agohttps://apnews.com/article/fact-check-electric-vehicle-charging-stations-75-billion-buttigieg-1ddcd6ee193fc1847e5401c95c016ec3 https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-electric-vehicle-charg...
- 1970-01-01 2y agoNobody has told Trump about the solar panels on the White House because they are still there.
- jmyeet 2y agoIt's important to remember that none of Elon's companies would exist without decades of massive government assistance. Loans, funding, tax credits, government contracts, etc. So what we have here is the absolute dumbest of people dismantling the machinery of American empire, cheered on by people who think their material conditions suck because there are a dozen trans people who play college athletics and not because billionaires have robbed them blind so they can be slightly wealthier. USAID is a perfect example of this. USAID spends its budget on American companies and then it uses that product for influence in other countries. American empire cannot exist without exploiting the Global South. Foreign policy and military power exist to subjugate other countries. Domestic policy is simply dividing up the spoils. All that's happening here is a massive self-own to American Empire that leaves a massive void China will fill. All of this will destroy Tesla. Elon is killing the market for Teslas, making them more expensive and any retributive tariffs by China will most likely target Tesla and the materials required to build batteries. I'm rapidly becoming an accelerationist because there is no opposition to this and nothing will stop American decline at this point.
- icameron 2y agoI come to HN to satisfy my long standing curiosity and interest in current events. My mental wellness has been trending down this past month due to news feeds, headlines and comment sections. Attempting to counter this trend I’ve blocked news aggregators at my hosts file (habitual opening news sites mindlessly) and disabled all the current event widgets built into Windows 11 that show up on new tabs, system tray and start menu. It was a good week after that. But that leaves little to check online. Seems the news even makes it here. So much politics this month. I understand why, but this EV thing is just… I know the goal is to appease the populist movement to make me cry liberal tears, and defeat any progressive agendas, and hats off to them they are succeeding! Not sure what to do next. EVs and green infrastructure make so much sense to me long term and short term and the rest of the world seems to be getting it.
- Symbiote 2y agoThe "classic" view is based on the votes from old accounts, and might have fewer political stories: https://news.ycombinator.com/classic https://news.ycombinator.com/classic Or maybe "pool" or one of the others: https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists
- pstuart 2y agoYou are far from alone. I think it's a "civic responsibility" to be aware of what one's government is up to. This is all happening because we've collectively allowed it to (ostensibly, but there are doubts about the legitimacy via gerrymandering, voter precinct suppression, and quite likely, election fraud). I think the serenity prayer offers useful advice in this regard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer
- soupfordummies 2y agoI've also found it helpful to just scream "SERENITY NOW!" whenever this torrent of terrifying news gets to be too much.
- insane_dreamer 2y ago
- tyronehed 2y agoWhat a bunch of petty sons of b***. Trump has aesthetics against electric cars, and that seems doubly bizarre since his partner is Elon Musk. But this is just extreme and ridiculous. The right has always had a fetish about fighting against the environment. Trump will only be alive a few more years and he doesn't care what happens to the planet.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoI understand Trump wanting to drill-baby-drill and boost the fossil fuel companies (and supposedly drop gas prices though that was just a lie fed to his base as it's not something he can control), but shutting off the EV chargers doesn't lower the price of gas. It certainly doesn't save the government any money or make it more efficient, nor does it root out corruption and fraud. And unless those EVs have DEI stickers on them, then it doesn't help purge America of the "evils of DEI". So ...?
- iJohnDoe 2y agoTrump was elected by those that believe in gas guzzling cars and trucks. His voters hate electric cars. He has to do this to appease his supporters. What makes it funny is his alignment with Musk. It’s like when Trump had dinner with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and Kayne West. You can’t make this stuff up.