Gov. Cooper visits EV charging station in Charlotte

Does anyone use the charger? Beatties Ford resident says "hell no."

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper visited an electric vehicle charging station in a Charlotte neighborhood today with Mayor Vi Lyles.

Brett Jensen WBT News @Brett_Jensen

Gov. Cooper & CLT Mayor Vi Lyles are having a joint press conference to brag about an electric car charger on Beatties Ford Rd, where electric cars aren’t exactly in abundance.

Brett Jensen WBT News @Brett_Jensen

I asked Mayor Lyles why the city chose an area where there are few, if any, electric cars for this $10,000 charging station. She told me I shouldn’t presume there aren’t electric cars here. A CLT employee then told me don’t be surprised if the station was stripped bare in a week

A local man was asked by WSOC9 reporter Joe Bruno if anyone ever uses the EV charging station, to which the man replied, “hell no.”

Joe Bruno @JoeBrunoWSOC9

A Beatties Ford resident asked me why the Governor and Mayor are visiting. I told him to check out the charging station and I asked if anyone ever uses it. He laughed and said “hell no.”

Bruno also reported that Cooper drove to the event in his gas-powered motorcade but then hopped in an electric vehicle with Lyles for a quick spin around the area.

Joe Bruno @JoeBrunoWSOC9

Governor Roy Cooper took his gas powered motorcade to the event, parked across the street at the police station and then hopped in one of the city’s EVs driven by Mayor Vi Lyles

Cooper’s visit to Charlotte for the EV promotional event comes as Russia advances further into Ukraine territory.

The environmental theme of Cooper’s event also coincides with remarks made this week by Biden’s U.S. special presidential envoy on climate John Kerry about Russian aggression in Ukraine.

"I'm concerned about Ukraine because of the people of Ukraine and because of the principles that are at risk, in terms of international law and trying to change boundaries of international law by force," Kerry said in an interview Monday on BBC Arabic, MEMRI reported Wednesday. "I thought we lived in a world that had said no to that kind of activity. And I hope diplomacy will win."

Kerry continued, "But it could have a profound negative impact on the climate obviously. You have a war and, obviously, you’re going to have massive emissions consequences to the war.”

Kerry went on to imply the war could make people “lose focus” on climate change.

“But equally importantly, you're going to lose people's focus, you're going to lose certainly big country attention because they will be diverted and I think it could have a damaging impact," Kerry said. "So, you know, I think hopefully President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on 66% of the nation that was over frozen land."

Full clip:

MEMRI @MEMRIReports

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on BBC Arabic: The Ukraine Crisis Could Distract the World from the Climate Crisis While Having Massive Emissions Consequences #RussiaUkraineConflict #UkraineRussie #UkraineRussiaCrisis #ClimateCrisis @JohnKerry @ClimateEnvoy