Town Falls Back on Diesel Fleet After None of Its Electric Buses Work
Tales of electric vehicle failures grow more numerous by the day.
According to Cowboy State Daily, a Wyoming-based news organization, Wyoming’s Teton County and the town of Jackson purchased eight electric buses, all of which have broken down and will no longer run.
The electric buses’ failure has forced Jackson and Teton County to rely on their existing fleet of 31 diesel buses.
Of course, all such green energy mishaps originate in tragicomic liberalism.
For instance, the Southern Teton Area Rapid Transit (START) system relied on support from its supplier, the California-based electric bus manufacturer Proterra.
In 2021, Congress appropriated more than $5.5 billion for eco-friendly buses under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
At the time, President Joe Biden conducted a virtual tour of tax-supported Proterra.
“The fact is, you’re making me look good,” Biden said at the time.
In August, Proterra filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Proterra CEO Gareth Joyce attributed the company’s failure to “various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to efficiently scale all our opportunities simultaneously.”
Not even 3 year old “EV” bus fleet bought from a now bankrupt @Proterra_Inc totally out of service! What a waste Wyoming!https://t.co/hrKPVFpfE6
— D MaC (@McC_711) September 27, 2023
In other words, Congress and Biden wasted more money on green energy.
The failure of their tax-supported electric bus manufacturer should elicit no sympathy for public officials in Wyoming. In fact, those same officials created this mess by attempting to maneuver their own citizens into dependence on green energy.
According to Jackson resident and former Teton County Commission member Paul Vogelheim, some area residents have long wanted to upgrade the county roads.
But the roads received no upgrades.
Instead, as the Cowboy State Daily described it, “a majority wanted driving to remain inconvenient in hopes that people would ride more bikes and take public transit.”
A majority of residents wanted driving to remain inconvenient!
In related news, according to Wyoming Public Media, Teton County ranks first in the nation in per-household wealth. Based on 2019 IRS info, Teton County households averaged $312,442 in adjusted gross income.
Of course they did.
After all, only affluent liberals would tout the deliberate inconveniencing of their neighbors as a moral virtue.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump won all but two of Wyoming’s 23 counties en route to winning the state with more than 70 percent of the total vote.
Meanwhile, affluent Teton County residents voted for Biden by a margin of 67.8 percent to 29.9 percent.
The top of this tragicomic-liberalism sundae has room for one large cherry.
Jackson and Teton County’s electric buses did not arrive damaged. For a while, they operated as part of the regular fleet.
Alas, they suffered what Cowboy State Daily called “degradation of performance during the winter months.”
In warm weather, the buses ran all day. But in cold weather they needed a midday charge, at which point a diesel bus would replace them.
“So, there is a difference in performance between cold weather and warm weather,” START Director Bruce Abel said.
According to WeatherWX, for the last 10 years Teton County has averaged single-digit low temperatures during the winter months.
Thus, Wyoming liberals have experience with cold-weather electric bus failures, and they live in extreme cold weather.
So what will they do?
Affluent residents of a county that could use a bit of warming appear determined to prevent it at all costs. That is, they will prevent it at all costs to other taxpayers.
Indeed, according to Cowboy State Daily, residents of America’s wealthiest per-household county who already received millions of dollars in Federal Transit Administration grants to pay for their existing electric buses plan to buy new ones.
Of course, they will have to find a new supplier. Because that will solve everything.
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