Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 🚗 Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s EV road trip faced issues when her team inadvertently reserved an EV charging stall with a gas car, leading to a probe initiated by House Oversight and Accountability Committee Republicans.
- 🏛️ Oversight Chairman James Comer and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon criticized the Biden Administration for the incident, emphasizing its disconnect with the consequences of EV policies.
- 🚙 The 600+ mile journey involved multiple EVs, including the Cadillac Lyriq, Ford F-150 Lightning, and Chevrolet Bolt.
- 🅿️ Reserving EV charging stalls with gas cars, a practice protested by EV advocates, led to a police call in a Georgia suburb. However, Georgia lacks laws against such behavior.
- ⚖️ The situation was resolved by sending vehicles to slower chargers, but Republicans are skeptical and seek documents related to the trip.
- 🗽 Committee Republicans aim to protect vehicle consumer choice in the face of the Biden Administration’s push for widespread EV adoption.
Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s mishap with her electric vehicle road trip, which resulted in the police being called as members of her team inadvertently ICE’d a charging station, has prompted House Oversight and Accountability Committee Republicans to open a probe.
“This taxpayer-funded publicity stunt illustrates yet again how out of touch the Biden Administration is with the consequences of policies it has unleashed on everyday Americans,” Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas, said in a letter that announced the investigation.
Earlier this month, we reported on Sec. Granholm’s four-day, 600+ mile journey from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Memphis, Tennessee, which would be taken with a fleet of EVs, including the Cadillac Lyriq, the Ford F-150 Lightning, and the Chevrolet Bolt.
The trip was relatively normal until they arrived in a suburb near Augusta, Georgia, that had just one fast-charging stall available. A staffer for the Energy Department pulled their gas car into the space to reserve it for Sec. Granholm. This is a common practice that is used by those who protest the use of EVs, and while Granholm’s staffer was doing it to keep her trip running smoothly, it is a law in many places that gas cars may not park in EV charging stalls under any circumstances.
A family that was combatting the hot weather and had a baby in their EV called the police, but Georgia has no laws against ICE’ing currently, which prevented the sheriff’s office from doing anything.
The situation was ultimately remedied by sending vehicles to slower chargers, which allowed both the Secretary and the family with the baby to charge at the same time. Granholm then said during the House Science and Technology Committee hearing on September 14 that the incident occurred due to “poor judgment on the part of the team.”
Fox News reported the story regarding the Republican’s probe.
But Republicans are not buying the “smoothed over” story that the Secretary’s trip reportedly ended with. They are requesting documents and information pertaining to the trip.
“Committee Republicans remain committed to preserving freedoms like vehicle consumer choice in the face of an unproven, burdensome, and expensive Biden Administration push to force all Americans to buy EVs,” the letter to Sec. Granholm said.
