{"id":44356,"date":"2023-03-06T15:46:53","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T20:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=44356"},"modified":"2023-03-06T15:46:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T20:46:53","slug":"florida-lawmaker-wants-to-ban-evs-from-hurricane-evacuations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=44356","title":{"rendered":"A Florida lawmaker wants to ban EVs from evacuating during hurricanes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

A Florida state senator told the state\u2019s Department of Transportation that he thinks EVs could run out of charge and block traffic during hurricane evacuations.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

EVs in Florida hurricane evacuations<\/h2>\n

State senator Jonathan Martin<\/a>, a Republican who represents Fort Myers, sits on the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources and also the new Select Committee on Resiliency. <\/p>\n

The Select Committee on Resiliency met with the Florida Department of Transportation\u2019s (FDOT) executive director of transportation technologies, Trey Tillander<\/a>, in late February. They discussed Florida\u2019s plans for the $198 million it\u2019s going to get from the Biden administration\u2019s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for EV charging infrastructure over the next five years.<\/p>\n

The federal EV charging infrastructure program requires EV stations to be 50 miles apart and open to all EVs. For the first round of grants, stations must be within a mile of the interstate, and rural and underserved communities must be given consideration.<\/p>\n

Grant agreements will be in place in Florida by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n

The News Service of Florida reported<\/a> what Martin said about EVs in evacuations during the discussion:<\/p>\n

\n

With a couple of guys behind you, you can\u2019t get out of the car and push it to the side of the road. Traffic backs up. And what might look like a two-hour trip might turn into an eight-hour trip once you\u2019re on the road.<\/p>\n

My concern is there\u2019s not an infrastructure currently available in the state of Florida for the amount of EVs that might be used to evacuate, on evacuation routes, during a time of emergency.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tillander replied in so many words that the FDOT isn\u2019t so hot on the idea of an EV ban during hurricane evacuations:<\/p>\n

\n

Some of the things we\u2019re looking into \u2026 is portable EV chargers.<\/p>\n

So, if an electrical vehicle runs out of charge, there are technologies. We have our Road Rangers. We have our emergency assistance vehicles that we deploy during a hurricane evacuation that have gas. \u2026 <\/p>\n

We need to provide that same level of service to electric vehicles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Oakland, California-based FreeWire<\/a> makes battery-integrated EV power stations. FreeWire\u2019s director of regulatory affairs, Renee Samson, told Electrek<\/em> today in an email:<\/p>\n

\n

Instead of restricting certain residents\u2019 ability to evacuate during a natural disaster, state leaders should consider investing in resilient technology to build out Florida\u2019s EV charging infrastructure network, such as battery-integrated DCFC, which enables charging during power outages. <\/p>\n

Gas pumps also need electricity to operate. Battery-integrated bidirectional charging technology can push power back to gas stations and other commercial buildings in an emergency, providing the ability to charge EVs and also power gas pumps during power outages.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Electrek\u2019s Take<\/h2>\n

Martin\u2019s ignorant comment was just that \u2013 a comment. Not a bill. But he has influence. Seeing how he sits on two committees that require more than a rudimentary knowledge of EVs and EV infrastructure, he has a responsibility to Florida residents to educate himself \u2013 like, now \u2013 since he has a direct influence on EV infrastructure rollout in the state that\u2019s ranked second in the US<\/a> for highest EV ownership.<\/p>\n

Just as gas car drivers fill their tanks to prepare for threatening storms, EV drivers also charge up their cars, and they usually do it at home.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a storm coming, we plug in. I did it in Florida, and now I do it in Vermont. If I had to evacuate in Florida, I\u2019d evacuate on a route that had chargers. I think most EV drivers know this, just like gas car drivers are thinking about gas station accessibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if the power goes out?\u201d Ah, yes, that old chestnut.<\/p>\n

When people are evacuating, the power is still on. One generally evacuates ahead<\/em> of a storm.<\/p>\n

Gas stations also don\u2019t work when the power is out. And when the power comes back on, it\u2019s on. You don\u2019t have to wait for the fuel truck to show up at your local gas station. Have you ever driven from gas station to gas station, looking for gas that hadn\u2019t shown up yet due to supply chain problems, long after the power came back on? I did during Hurricane Irma. My power came on days before the gas stations were replenished.<\/p>\n

And as my colleague Jameson Dow pointed out<\/a> after Hurricane Harvey in 2017:<\/p>\n

\n

An EV can be charged from a gasoline generator, but also from any other source of electricity. This is not true of gas cars \u2013 they can fill with gas, but not with anything else.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hope that helps, Sen. Martin.<\/p>\n

\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Florida state senator told the state\u2019s Department of Transportation that he thinks EVs could run out of charge and block traffic during hurricane evacuations. EVs in Florida hurricane evacuations State senator Jonathan Martin, a Republican who represents Fort Myers, sits on the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources and also the new Select Committee […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}