Good day all. The Progressive Liberal Democrats have been shoving their ideas of the Green New Deal down the throats of unwilling Americans for the last few years.
The Progressives in the Federal Government have been handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to their preferred manufacturers regardless of the actual financial health of the companies they’ve been shoveling money at. One of these companies made electric buses, and one of the very few Blue locations in Wyoming decided to virtue signal big time and spent millions of taxpayer dollars on eight electric buses.
Right on schedule, almost as soon as the busses were delivered, they started not performing to spec and failing miserably, followed in short order by the actual company. Now every single one of these buses has broken down and become large paperweights. Here are the amusing details from the Daily Caller:
A Democratic enclave in Wyoming purchased electric buses to reduce emissions, but the buses are indefinitely inoperable after their manufacturer went bankrupt earlier this summer, the Cowboy State Daily reported.
Jackson, Wyoming, and Teton County formed the Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) system, which bought eight electric buses from Proterra to add to its fleet of 31 diesel buses, the Cowboy State Daily reported. Proterra, which itself was at the center of a conflict of interest controversy including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, went bankrupt in August, and START’s eight e-buses are now out of commission given that the manufacturer can no longer readily supply the parts needed for repairs.
Readily supply? How about unable to supply at all since the company went broke. They are in Chapter 11, but I don’t know how they can reorganize themselves. I’m not any sort of expert on bankruptcy laws, but I suspect that they might just be dissolved and everything sold off to take care of their creditors. One thing they probably aren’t doing is making parts for those Woke, politically correct lawn ornaments.
The last of the START Proterra buses went out of service two months ago, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
In fiscal year 2021, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave the Wyoming Department of Transportation $1.1 million in taxpayer funds to buy e-buses for START, according to the FTA website.
Why do I see a remake of Solyndra and Fisker? Could it be that once again we have Democrats virtue signaling with our money? Why yes, I think that just might be the case!
Proterra has reportedly asserted that it will fill remaining orders while it goes through the bankruptcy proceedings, according to Cowboy State Daily. It is unclear whether that commitment applies to orders for smaller parts needed for repairs.
“It is our intent to find the necessary parts to get them back up and operable, and we are assessing ways to do that,” a START spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
START will not scrap the buses, and it remains committed to finding ways to bring down the emissions of its operations, the spokesperson added.
How about starting with firing all the idiots who wasted who knows how much money on this crap? That would be a great place to start.
The buses had operational problems before the company went bankrupt, according to the Cowboy State Daily. In the cold winter months, the battery range of the buses would significantly decrease, especially given that more energy is drained to heat the interior of the buses, according to the Cowboy State Daily.
When cold weather drained the batteries, the electric buses reportedly needed to go back into their depots for charging while diesel-powered buses were used to ferry people around as the electric buses regained power.
How many of you saw that problem coming? It’s well known that batteries do not handle cold very well, especially when they are being used to provide heat into the passenger sections of a bus. In real buses using real engines, that heat was drawn from the engine cooling system and piped into the passenger area. This serves two purposes. It helps cool the engine and warm the passengers. It’s what is known as a “Win, Win” situation.
Teton County voted overwhelmingly for President Joe Biden in the 2020 cycle, according to Politico.
The Biden administration promoted Proterra as a leading manufacturer of electric buses and component parts before it went bankrupt.
Insert something biden
Granholm maintained a stake in the company after being confirmed as Energy Secretary in 2021. In her capacity as Energy Secretary, Granholm directed policies which could have favored her own financial interests, and she eventually closed her position in the firm late in May 2021, netting capital gains amounting to about $1.6 million.
She should have closed out her positions, (Sold the stock), when she started going through the confirmation process. She should have also disclosed her position and informed the senate that she was in the process of selling off her shares to avoid any hint of a conflict of interest. The problem with Comrade Granholm is, she is a walking conflict of interest.
The FTA has been wasting who knows how much money on these electric Tonka toys. They claim they don’t tell municipalities which electric buses they should buy as long as they’re made in America. (They also claim they don’t tell them to by EV buses instead of ones that actually work with diesel engines) Considering the history of the Biden Maladministration, excuse me if I don’t believe that for a moment.
All this just goes to show that Electric vehicles are a long way from being reliable and actually useful for day to day operations. Electric cars such as the Tesla, which is probably the best of the bunch, don’t have the range people need and take to long to recharge. They’re also firetraps if the lithium batteries are ruptured.
There is a reason when hurricanes come into Florida that the aftermath is marked by burning Teslas. They were abandoned by the owners who took regular cars to get out of danger. Consider Hurricane Katrina. One guy, a criminal to be sure, stole a bus and used it to drive people out of the danger area. He made three or four trips before he was caught. (He was let go on that charge as he should have been) If that had been an Electric Bus, he wouldn’t have completed one trip, let alone the three or four he made. Thank about that the next time you absolutely, positively gotta get outta Dodge right this second.
Thatisall
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