Cops called after Jennifer Granholm staffer uses gas-powered car to hold EV charging spot for Biden energy secretary 

A Georgia family called 911 earlier this summer after a staffer for Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm used a nonelectric vehicle to hog the only open EV charging station outside a local Walmart while the Biden administration official was still en route. 

Granholm, 64, was on a four-day road trip from North Carolina to Tennessee, promoting green energy with a traveling caravan of electric and nonelectric vehicles, when a member of her advance team used a gasoline-powered car to reserve a charging station for her, according to NPR, angering at least one family who had been waiting in line. 

The inconsiderate practice is known as “ICEing” — a reference to the internal-combustion engines inside gasoline-powered vehicles — and is subject to a $100 fine in Washington, DC, where the Department of Energy is headquartered, but it is not illegal in Grovetown, where the June incident occurred. 

“There’s literally a nonelectric car that is taking up the space, who said they’re holding the space to somebody else, and it’s holding up a whole bunch of people who need to charge their cars,” a furious woman told a 911 operator, according to the Augusta Press.

An NPR reporter traveling with Granholm’s caravan noted that it was a “sweltering” day and that the boxed-out woman had a baby with her. 

A charging station opened up while the woman was on the line with 911, but she noted, “There’s other people who are waiting to charge, and they’re still here, and that’s not an electric car. And the sign says that it has to … you can’t park here unless you’re charging.”  

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the scene but was not able to rectify the situation since practice is not illegal there. 

Granholm’s staff reportedly “scrambled to smooth over the situation” by redirecting cars to other charging stations. 

The Department of Energy would not comment on the incident, only touting “President Biden’s historic investing” in EV charging infrastructure when contacted by The Post.