NM Taxpayers bail out another “green” scheme (and large corporation)

Politicians, especially those in New Mexico, never seem to miss a chance to use OUR money on THEIR priorities, even when (perhaps especially when) those schemes are failing. So, I found this article from Reuters which described problems FedEx and UPS are having in adopting to EV technology for their delivery vehicles. 

Achieving that aim (green vehicles), however, is hampered by battery shortages that are limiting EV supplies and keeping prices high, and by startup electric van makers that are running out of money and shutting down.

“The question is how many of those (companies) will be here in five years, 10 years?” Luke Wake, UPS’s vice president of fleet maintenance and engineering, told Reuters.

So, what do we see from KRQE Channel 13 on April 30? The New Mexico Environment Department is handing UPS “over $473,000 in grant money to replace 16 old delivery vehicles.”

On one hand delivery vehicles are MUCH better suited to EV technology than are family cars. The vans run around town all day making deliveries and starting and stopping only to return to their “home” charging station at night. But, if there are battery shortages and an unreliable supply chain businesses can’t really rely on EV’s to “deliver.” And, of course there is the issue of nearly half a million dollars being handed over to a VERY profitable publicly traded company.

Correction: The trucks being purchased run on Compressed Natural Gas. Apologies for the mistake. 

Shouldn’t SOMEONE on the political left be concerned about that? Oh, and will New Mexico buy “green” trucks for FedEx as well or just UPS?

Fleet profile: UPS shares results of strong investment in alternative fuel