Electric cars charging.
Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty
The oil industry is trying to crush the booming electric car movement.
Groups backed by industry giants like Exxon Mobil and the Koch empire are waging a state-by-state, multimillion-dollar battle to squelch utilities’ plans to build charging stations across the country. Environmentalists call the fight a reprise of the “Who Killed the Electric Car?” battles that doomed an earlier generation of battery-driven vehicles in the 1990s.
Oil-backed groups have challenged electric companies’ plans in 10 states, according to utility commission filings reviewed by POLITICO, waging regulatory and lobbying campaigns against the proposals. The showdown is taking place as utilities, eager to increase the demand for power, push for approval to build charging networks in locations such as shopping centers and rest stops in more than half the nation.
“Fossil fuel interests control 90 percent of the transportation fuel market in the U.S. and are really feeling threatened,” said Gina Coplon-Newfield, director of the electric vehicle initiative at the Sierra Club.
The counterattack involves an […]
What gives me hope in Greensboro NC is two-fold. First, I saw two Tesla recharge stations installed accross from the main entrance to a business just outside of the city proper (Replacements — where they sell replacements for your china and silver etc) which tells me their “bottom line” will be improved if they provide this service to their electric vehicle customers. Second, I just found out two weeks ago that one of the Sheets gas station has installed a dozen Tesla charging stations along the outer edge of their current gas/carwash offerings. On that day there was one car plugged in with a woman reading a book in the driver’s seat. The change will happen from Bottom to Top. milkaTheAppreciator