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A Sydney council stops EV owners from saving the planet.

Is there a climate emergency, or not?

That’s the question North Sydney Council needs to answer after threatening to fine EV owners for running power cords across footpaths to charge their EVs.

Council rangers have been threatening EV drivers — who, let’s face it, are on the frontlines in the battle to save the planet — with $300 fines for simply juicing up their Teslas.

Why does North Sydney Council hate Planet Earth so much?

Now, admittedly, the climate warriors have been running extension cords across footpaths in order to charge their eco-friendly vehicles, but that’s hardly their fault.

The Federal Government has been urging everyone to go electric without much urgency about how people will access electricity…

But since when has this government allowed practicality to trump ideology?

Priorities

Waverton resident John Slaytor told The Daily Telegraph he had received warning letters from the council after they spotted him charging his car in the street.

Slaytor explained that he doesn’t have a driveway. So he ran a cord to his EV parked on the side of his quiet street, using a plastic covering over the cord to mitigate the risk of anything tripping over it.

Moreover, he did it late at night when foot traffic was at a minimum.

Planet AND pedestrians saved!

But a council ranger — who has obviously never watched Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth or attended a Greta Thunberg rally — told him the “practice must cease immediately” and warned that a repeat offence would result in a $300 fine.

Slaytor was perplexed:

“We have a climate emergency, but the council is instead more worried about public liability and being sued.”

Great point.

Would you rather trip and graze your knee, or boil to death?

A council spokesman told The Telegraph it had a “responsibility to ensure public safety”.

And how safe will the people of North Sydney be when it is inundated by rising seas?

Drop the mic!

Inefficient

Mr Slaytor said charging his car at home was cheaper than using publicly available facilities – costing about 8c per kilowatt compared to around 50c at public charging points.

Wait. So now we’re debating whether saving the planet is worth an extra 42c per kilowatt?

I’m so confused.

Slaytor continued:

“Even with a reasonably fast public charger, it takes at least an hour to charge an EV and it’s not something you want to be doing every day.

“I have solar panels and if I was able to charge from home during the day, it would be a lot better for the planet.”

As soon as Chris Bowen figures out how to get power from moon beams, we are saved. But I digress.

Having read the article, I was left with two key thoughts:

First, we don’t actually have a climate emergency — you know it, Chris Bowen knows it, and the North Shore Council knows it.

Second, it’s not smart to buy an electric vehicle when you know in advance that you have nowhere to charge it.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.

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Image courtesy of Adobe.