Mike’s EV Diary: Victory At Long Last!
Friends are always asking me why I founded the American EV Jobs Alliance and our allied c3 EVs For All America.
It was a topic of some interest among all my political hack pals.
“What happened to Murphy? How’d he go so nuts? For EVs of all things?!?”
Well, to quote Governor Earl…I ain’t crazy!
The short answer is a mix of concern about the dire Chinese threat to U.S. automaking, native son loyalty to my hometown of Detroit, the industry that put my family into the middle class, a motorhead’s love of interesting car tech, and… a search for happiness in a very unhappy time.
This Substack post from 2023 explains that last “happiness” part:
I’ve enjoyed this EV journey, and I’m very proud of our work as both organizations have grown and had a real impact in the pro-EV movement. (Stay tuned, there is a lot more to come!)
So, in the spirit of other EV-related Substack posts I have written covering more personal stuff like driving (a non-Tesla) EV across America, I thought I’d start posting occasional musings on this blog, along with all our serious policy stuff and research insights.
Here goes, with entry one of Mike’s EV Diary: “Victory at Long Last!”
The Big White EV Whale
It was nearly two years ago when I first posted (Captain Ahab style) about my Big White EV Whale: a built but yet-to-be-commissioned EVgo station on Robertson Blvd near the mighty I-10 freeway in Los Angeles.
I’d drive by every few days and watch the weeds growing taller on a brand new yet never-activated station surrounded by construction fencing. It drove me nuts!
It looked like a set from The Walking Dead.
The Turning Point
And it made my head explode.
Berserk, I started pestering the good people at EVgo (I love their outstanding stations on the Ohio Turnpike, done in partnership with GM Energy). I even darkly threatened at one point to grab my bolt cutters and break into the station and cut the damn weeds myself!
No reply. A year went by. The weeds grew even taller than the once pristine new Delta Electronic DCFC dispensers.
Finally, after much of my howling, the EVgo Grand Vizier of these station snafus kindly reached out. Marcy is former military intelligence and extremely squared away. Sensing I might have a stroke, Marcy got the weeds all cut down in a day. She also gave me the backstory on the whole situation; EVgo, too, with tons of money sunk into a big, beautiful, and painfully non-activated station, was going nuts about it.
The problem was a complicated one involving, as usual in Los Angeles, local government, a tricky permit, a landlord, and multiple local authorities.
Naturally, I went into extreme pest mode, and Gov. Newsom, a legit EV supporter, and others in state government got an earful. Commissioner Nancy Skinner of the California Energy Commission, a true friend of EVs, heard about this problem station and pounced into action with her staff like a lightning bolt. Lo and behold…
Victory at Long Last
I got stuck in a traffic jam today!
On Robertson Blvd.
In front of the station, now buzzing with construction. The permits have been issued!
It was a good traffic jam, and it won’t last long. Construction crews were busy finishing a trench to run power to the new fast-charging station. Soon, after a long journey, this EVgo station, a big and extremely well-located one, will be up and running and, I predict, very popular and often used.
Progress isn’t easy, but it gets there. Thank you to Team EVgo, CA Energy Commissioner Skinner and her staff, the local officials who saw the light, and Gov. Newsom.
Until next time—more tales from Mike’s EV Diary.
Happiness.