Biden's Energy Secretary Has Electric Vehicle Nightmare During Promotion Tour After Police Are Called

Even Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is having issues with electric vehicles, getting the police called on her while touring around the southern United States in an attempt to promote the electric car to Americans.

During a four-day trip from North Carolina to Tennessee that was “intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars,” the energy secretary had the police called on her team over parking a gas vehicle in an eclectic charging spot, per Fox News.

Despite the trip being “painstakingly mapped out ahead of time to allow for charging,” problems still arose when a family wanted to charge in a spot that was being held for Granholm’s vehicle. The location they arrived at had a limited number of charging spots so the team was parking to hold a spot for Granholm's car.

"But between stops, Granholm's entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present," Camila Domonoske, a reporter for NPR who accompanied Granholm on the trip, said. "That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?"

"In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved," she explained. "They called the police."

The parties were ultimately able to come to a solution that allowed the family to charge their car alongside the secretary. However, the incident was far from an uncommon sight, ironically being one of the major factors against the push for electric vehicles. 

"I drive an electric vehicle myself, and I've test-driven many more as NPR's auto reporter. I know how easy it can be to charge when everything goes well and how annoying it can be when things go poorly," Domonoske wrote. "Riding along with Granholm, I came away with a major takeaway: EVs that aren't Teslas have a road trip problem, and the White House knows it's urgent to solve this issue."

Despite attempts from Granholm to paint EVs as “super-easy for people to travel long distances” with, it instead highlighted the many faults. Even the NPR article noted how despite the careful planning that went into the trip there were still numerous setbacks that caused complications that wouldn’t be found with gas vehicles.

"On the secretary's road trip, that stop in Grovetown included a charger with a dead black screen," NPR wrote. "At another stop in Tennessee, the Chevy Bolt that I was riding in charged at one-third the rate it should have. Electrify America says that's not an isolated problem; a faulty component has caused a number of chargers to be ‘derated’ while the company works on a fix."