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What went wrong is that the federal government didn't build or legislate a national charging infrastructure to match the scale of the interstate highway system.

What went wrong is that the federal government didn't build or legislate a national charging infrastructure to match the scale of the interstate highway system. They could have strong-armed the states into it with a combination of funding the construction and the way they mandated the 21 drinking age: by threatening to withhold highway funds.

atoav 1y ago
Isn't this lack of forward thinking somewhat the general problem now? From an EU perspective the world as it has existed in the living memory is a world shaped by decisive US-actions. The way EVs have been approached were anything but that. Arguably neither did Germany, because of the way their politicians are entangled with the car manufacturers.
- bgnn 1y ago
  Germany actively hampered it by promoting diesel as THE greeen fuel.
  - atoav 1y ago
    Yes, as I hinted at in the last sentence of my comment.
phonon 1y ago
They definitely tried... $7.5 Billion worth. It's on pause now :-( https://www.govtech.com/transportation/federal-funding-for-ev-charging-infrastructure-is-paused https://www.govtech.com/transportation/federal-funding-for-e...
- cpursley 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - perihelions 1y ago
    That program should be a textbook case-study in how not to run federal projects. Here's a true statistic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/ev-charging-stations-slow-rollout/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/... ("Biden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two years" (2024))
    - cpursley 1y ago
      That's insane. Wild that people defend this because they hate Trump so much (yeah he's a bag-oh-farts, but that's a lot of damn money).
      - dml2135 1y ago
        They didn’t spend most of that money yet. This is a story about a program not getting off the ground in two years and then being cancelled by the political opposition. Is two years too slow? You could certainly argue that. But this really isn’t a story about government incompetence wasting billions of dollars on a handful or charging stations. Money was allocated, but it never had the chance to be spent.
        cpursley 1y ago
        The $500 million that was wasted could have bought the taxpayer 10,000 electric cars. Just ponder on that. Where is the damn money?
        dml2135 1y ago
        You don’t get 1/10 the chargers for 1/10 the money, thats not how projects work. You need to hire people, make a plan, and execute on the plan, and all of that has upfront costs. The same in government as in business — why do you think startups need investors? That money was wasted when the project was cancelled, not before.
  - 1y ago
- hed 1y ago
  And how many stations did that yield?
- DidYaWipe 1y ago
  I don't think they actually tried. They created a fund... and then did nothing to implement the intended result.
- alexzapata8405 1y ago
  To the other commenters replying to you, and to you as well, the money is committed in a way that is difficult if not impossible to prevent from going out the door once projects are complete or hit specific milestones. Many projects are already underway but it takes time to select sites, developers, manufacture chargers, negotiate with utilities, and develop the sites. This work is underway and many more chargers will come online over the next few years. The new administration is preventing new projects, but horses have already left the barn.
  - phonon 1y ago
    I certainly hope so. But this[1] (not to mention other highly illegal "impoundment" type actions of this administration) gives me little succor. :-( [1] https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/resources/state-plan-approval-suspension.pdf https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/resources/state-pl...
voidfunc 1y ago
> They could have strong-armed the states into it with a combination of funding the construction and the way they mandated the 21 drinking age: by threatening to withhold highway funds. Yea let's give the federal government more power. That's going so well right now.
- watwut 1y ago
  The current issue is the president ignoring legal limits of his power and breaking laws right and left. While his party cheers on. While useful parts of the federal goverment are destroyed, because they dont serve ultra rich.
  - globnomulous 1y ago
    In a way, the current administration perfectly demonstrates the value of a strong federal government: a kakistocratic, kleptocratic regime wouldn't dismantle the "administrative state" if it weren't an impediment to their criminality, incompetence, and rapacity.
- motorest 1y ago
  > Yea let's give the federal government more power. That's going so well right now. Investing on a nation-wide infrastructure grid that fundamentally changes the nation's energy independence is hardly a reason to mindlessly parrot state rights cliches.
- DidYaWipe 1y ago
  NATIONAL-scale projects are exactly what the federal government should do. I specifically referred to the Eisenhower interstate-highway system. Those are the kind of grand undertakings that transformed our country, and which the current administration can't even conceive... let alone articulate or propose. Read about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

atoav 1y ago

Isn't this lack of forward thinking somewhat the general problem now? From an EU perspective the world as it has existed in the living memory is a world shaped by decisive US-actions. The way EVs have been approached were anything but that. Arguably neither did Germany, because of the way their politicians are entangled with the car manufacturers.

bgnn 1y ago
Germany actively hampered it by promoting diesel as THE greeen fuel.
- atoav 1y ago
  Yes, as I hinted at in the last sentence of my comment.

phonon 1y ago

They definitely tried... $7.5 Billion worth. It's on pause now :-( https://www.govtech.com/transportation/federal-funding-for-ev-charging-infrastructure-is-paused https://www.govtech.com/transportation/federal-funding-for-e...

cpursley 1y ago
[flagged]
- perihelions 1y ago
  That program should be a textbook case-study in how not to run federal projects. Here's a true statistic: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/ev-charging-stations-slow-rollout/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/... ("Biden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two years" (2024))
  - cpursley 1y ago
    That's insane. Wild that people defend this because they hate Trump so much (yeah he's a bag-oh-farts, but that's a lot of damn money).
    - dml2135 1y ago
      They didn’t spend most of that money yet. This is a story about a program not getting off the ground in two years and then being cancelled by the political opposition. Is two years too slow? You could certainly argue that. But this really isn’t a story about government incompetence wasting billions of dollars on a handful or charging stations. Money was allocated, but it never had the chance to be spent.
      - cpursley 1y ago
        The $500 million that was wasted could have bought the taxpayer 10,000 electric cars. Just ponder on that. Where is the damn money?
        dml2135 1y ago
        You don’t get 1/10 the chargers for 1/10 the money, thats not how projects work. You need to hire people, make a plan, and execute on the plan, and all of that has upfront costs. The same in government as in business — why do you think startups need investors? That money was wasted when the project was cancelled, not before.
- 1y ago
hed 1y ago
And how many stations did that yield?
DidYaWipe 1y ago
I don't think they actually tried. They created a fund... and then did nothing to implement the intended result.
alexzapata8405 1y ago
To the other commenters replying to you, and to you as well, the money is committed in a way that is difficult if not impossible to prevent from going out the door once projects are complete or hit specific milestones. Many projects are already underway but it takes time to select sites, developers, manufacture chargers, negotiate with utilities, and develop the sites. This work is underway and many more chargers will come online over the next few years. The new administration is preventing new projects, but horses have already left the barn.
- phonon 1y ago
  I certainly hope so. But this[1] (not to mention other highly illegal "impoundment" type actions of this administration) gives me little succor. :-( [1] https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/resources/state-plan-approval-suspension.pdf https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/nevi/resources/state-pl...

voidfunc 1y ago

> They could have strong-armed the states into it with a combination of funding the construction and the way they mandated the 21 drinking age: by threatening to withhold highway funds. Yea let's give the federal government more power. That's going so well right now.

watwut 1y ago
The current issue is the president ignoring legal limits of his power and breaking laws right and left. While his party cheers on. While useful parts of the federal goverment are destroyed, because they dont serve ultra rich.
- globnomulous 1y ago
  In a way, the current administration perfectly demonstrates the value of a strong federal government: a kakistocratic, kleptocratic regime wouldn't dismantle the "administrative state" if it weren't an impediment to their criminality, incompetence, and rapacity.
motorest 1y ago
> Yea let's give the federal government more power. That's going so well right now. Investing on a nation-wide infrastructure grid that fundamentally changes the nation's energy independence is hardly a reason to mindlessly parrot state rights cliches.
DidYaWipe 1y ago
NATIONAL-scale projects are exactly what the federal government should do. I specifically referred to the Eisenhower interstate-highway system. Those are the kind of grand undertakings that transformed our country, and which the current administration can't even conceive... let alone articulate or propose. Read about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System