Rollin Coal in the Apocalypse

Pick your apocalypse, and choose an ending.  Are you rolling virtual coal to spite your climate denying neighbors or because you didn’t know.  We have to get out of each other's faces and work together or we fail together.  

It’s fairly common when commuting with an EV to plug it in when you get home.  Unfortunately that is peak usage time for most utilities, and when availability of Solar power is dropping.  To counter that many utilities will give you a reduced rate for usage after 9 PM.  Of course this is also when many utilities are using electricity from Coal plants they either operate or power they buy from neighboring utilities.  So in many cases you are literally burning coal to commute with your sporty EV, even if it looks like you are environmentally sensitive.  

When I worked for GM they installed solar powered charging stations at our facility.  I did not take advantage of them primarily because they were typically all in use by the time I could dependably get to work.  Needing to collaborate with a team spread from South Korea to Germany w/o invoking overtime for them it was easier to simply work shifted hours from home several days a week.  

When GM needed to reduce staff by several thousand to focus on EVs. We sold our house, and cars, bought a travel trailer and truck to haul it (and the household goods we hadn’t shipped) and headed for Oregon.  Even though there were lessons yet to be learned, the truck and trailer were well matched for that journey.  While theoretically possible to replicate that trip with a proper EV it would take some thought.

In Silverton OR where we ended up, many of the homes are misaligned for optimal Solar power utilization.  Many of the folks who install Solar seem to do so for cost savings more than actually saving the planet or having emergency backup.  Having sufficient battery backup as part of your solar installation, can relieve the local utility from having to buy as much coal powered electricity, as well as providing emergency backup for your family.  Considering a loan for the purchase of both Solar Panels and Batteries, in theory spreads the cost over time, in line with likely saving, but it does not resolve the environmental and human cost of the mineral extractions as we understand them today.  

The house we left in Michigan was optimally aligned in consideration of Solar, and coupled with only having to commute a few days a week, an EV Pickup might be a reasonable compromise.  A truck such as the Chevy Silverado EV has plenty of battery to see our house through the night, even enough that with only minor power conservation, could power us through several weeks of Grid outage.  Likewise with our situation in Oregon, even without optimal solar alignment, but with a significantly lower truck use profile, it might make sense to have a Silverado EV with the two way home charging accessory.  

Living on the West Coat instead of the Midwest adds a new dimension to Emergency preparedness.  In the Midwest having several weeks of; water, food, and power stashed in your basement safe zone gives you some basic comfort to face the occasional tornado or storm.  On the West Coast it is also necessary to consider the possible need to evacuate.  The guidelines for this are a little less clear.  While there are guides for what to gather in supplies for 72 hours of possible self sufficiency, some of the requirements for getting out of Dodge are a little less clear.  Long ago we adopted the habit of trying to keep our vehicles at least ½ full of fuel.  In our experience so far, our pickup truck is pretty well suited as long as we leave the trailer behind, and remember when to use invincibility gear (4 wheel low).  

Based on experience, my plan is to have the truck packed with most of what we might need when the situation is assessed to be at Level-1 “Be Ready”.  This requires very little additional prep when the Go alert is given for your area.  I’ve driven through neighborhoods, where many of the homes seem to have a third garage bay appropriate for expedition worthy Sprinter Vans.  Not so ours, which barely tolerates pickup trucks parked in the Driveway.  While a popup camper cap for a pickup would bring the same level of versatility and readiness, there are no production camper caps for the Silverado EV that I have been able to find.  I have wondered why GM didn’t either admit the EV pickup truck was the Avalanche reborn, or keep more traditional Silverado/Sierra styling which would have permitted production camper tops to be used.  We have one more example of the consequences of EV implementation not being thought through.