This time it’s two steps forward, two steps back.
The N.C. Department of Transportation recently removed charging stations for plug-in electric cars from four rest stops on interstate highways in the state, a move not unlike Rowan County’s brief experience with truck-stop electrification.
Though the plug was pulled on these projects for different reasons, together they show that the business model for using electricity in place of fossil fuels has yet to be perfected or accepted. Apparently electricity can be too expensive — or too cheap.
Let’s start with the truck stop story. Amid much fanfare, Derrick Travel Plaza in Rowan County unveiled 44 parking spaces in 2010 that were equipped with electricity. Plugging in enabled truckers to turn off their engines when they stopped to rest rather than keep them idling — and polluting the air — all night. But the $500,000 in government grants that funded the project went up in smoke when the vendor pulled them only two years into the seven-year contract. CabAire officials said the truck stop owner demanded the removal; others said truckers were not using the stations much because the fee was too high. At any rate, the project died.
With the rest-stop charging stations, the complaint was that the electricity was too inexpensive — that is, free. Installed in Johnston and Alamance counties under Gov. Bev Perdue’s administration in 2012, the stations were unpopular with Republican leaders of the General Assembly, according to The News & Observer. They didn’t like the “give away” aspect. They mounted a successful, bipartisan effort to order DOT to charge drivers for their power usage. When DOT officials could not figure out a way to do that — snack machines are the only vendors federal law permits at interstate rest stops — they quietly removed the chargers. Only 146 cars had used them in 14 months’ time, sucking up a total of 446.9 kilowatt-hours of electricity, The N&O reported — $44.69 worth. In the chargers’ place now stand signs to mark the spot — “EV charging station pilot project.” Once again, government grant money to fund the project was wasted.
Consider it payment for a valuable lesson. Changing habits might be the easier part of getting drivers to switch from gasoline and diesel fuel to electricity so they can protect air quality. The tough part is figuring out a way to make power pitstops easily accessible on the road and priced at a level that is acceptable to vendors, consumers and politicians.