||| FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES |||
Over the past three years, Standing Rock has installed chargers across the reservation as part of the Electric Nation project, a regional effort to create an intertribal charging network.
By the time the project wraps at the end of November, Standing Rock Nation will operate 13 E.V. chargers, most of them in North Dakota.
The Standing Rock Reservation, home to the Lakota and Dakota peoples, is rural and spread out, straddling the border between North and South Dakota. The cost of gas aggravates the reservation’s high poverty rates.
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I like electric vehicles. We may all have them some day. And just like other automotive fuels the user should pay for the electrons that drive these motors.
Why does the Port of Orcas still provide FREE automotive power to electric vehicles with our tax dollars?
There are self pay devices on the charging units everywhere. Why am we paying for other folks automotive fuel through our taxes.
No more free electron lunch.
DISCONNECT THE FREE CHARGER AT THE
AIRPORT, the other ones work just fine.
Gary
Don’t look now but free chargers have sprung up all over the island. Our vehicles: RAV4 Prime (PHEV) and a 1987 Toyota pickup.
Yes I have seen that.
I guess I just do not understand the concept of free fuel.
How could this possibly be sustainable?
If a business wants to pay for free fuel that is their decision. But tax dollars are a different matter.
This free electron scheme is not like medicare or medicade or a food bank which have important positive social value for those who need it and therefore should continue.
I see our electric bills are rising rapidly, mostly for good reasons. I’ll pay for what I consume but I don’t think Opalco will hand out free electrons for expensive automobiles.
Whatever happened to paying your own way?
Gary, your arguments seem a bit hypothetical. I don’t own an EV yet either, but when I buy one, I’ll certainly take advantage of the local network.
Personally I’d be happy to pay an extra $1/month on my bill to offset the implementation of a robust charging network on the islands. But I don’t think the cost would even add up to $1 per user.
I would advise getting some hard data from OPALCO about the “free electron scheme” before going on this crusade. You may find that the cost is so low as to be inconsequential, or that the costs have been offset by grants and other non-ratepayer funding sources.
As for the social benefit, it’s not simply a free giveaway to Tesla owners. For example our local nonprofit Island Rides provides ride sharing and car sharing programs using EVs. These situations are never black and white.
I would like to see the math in how a one dollar per month tax would fund electric charging for everyone, especially in the face of massive rate increases in our short term.
‘Take advantage’ indeed. Those who can afford EVs taking advantage of those who cannot.