An unintended consequence of California's drive to cut emissions by encouraging people to buy electric cars is that the number of green car drivers has exceeded the supply of recharging spots, reported The New York Times.
While electric cars are making American states greener, the shortage of car recharging plugs is making some Americans meaner, according to The Seattle Times.
Half of the country's electric car owners reside in California, The Daily Mail noted. But the state's push for more electric cars has lead to an insufficient number of car charging stations.
Electric car driver Don Han reported an incident when he plugged his electric car in to charge this summer at a public charging station near Silicon Valley and another person drove up and pulled the charger out of his car, according to The New York Times.
"I said, 'Hey Buddy, what do you think you're doing?' And he said, 'Well, your car is done charging,' and 'after saying a couple of curse words,'" Han said, adding that he told the driver that his car was not done charging.
Electric car owners are unplugging each others cars, cursing at each other, and making side deals for car charging spots, The Seattle Times noted.
Maureen Blanc, director of Charge Across Town, a nonprofit that pushes the spread of electric car ownership, said tensions are "growing and growing" over the deficit of available car chargers, The New York Times reported.
Blanc drives an electric BMW and said that she got into an argument with a Tesla car driver over a car charging outlet. "It's high time for somebody to tackle the electric-vehicle etiquette problem," she said.
One Google computer manager created and sold 9,000 electric vehicle charging packs for $15 each. The packs are a short term fix to a long term solution that will increase as more drivers opt to buy green cars.
California Governor Jerry Brown wants a long-term solution, as he pledged to increase the number of charging stations. Brown signed a bill into law last week that created incentives for utilities to install more electric car charging stations so that more drivers will buy green cars, according to The Los Angeles Times.
California State Senate leader Kevin de Leon, of Los Angeles, predicted that charging stations "will be as ubiquitous as gas stations are."
