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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 22 maart 2022

As gas prices rise, towns add electric car charging stations

other proponents of ditching “Don’t worry about it,” said hicles, reduce emissions, and
fossil fuels. Joseph Fiordaliso, president create a cleaner environment
of the New Jersey Board of for our children.”
From coast to coast, cit- Public Utilities. “We have
ies big and small are adding the equipment here so that Governments across the
charging stations for electric you don’t have to have range country are doing likewise.
vehicles. Strong demand is anxiety.” Bellingham, Washington will
forecast for the vehicles, de- add 90 charging stations over
spite their higher prices and Spots getting money for new the next two years. Portland,
limited availability, meaning charging stations include Maine, recently entered into
even more communities will Asbury Park, Atlantic City, a 10-year agreement with a
feel pressure to add charging Ocean City and several state company that will install, op-
stations or risk having motor- parks and forests. erate and maintain more than
ists pass them by in favor of 40 electric vehicle charging
plug-in-friendly places. The money comes from the stations on publicly owned
state budget. On Tuesday, property.
The publicly funded invest- NJ Transit, the state’s public
ments come as gasoline pric- transportation agency, will Charleston, West Virginia,
es in most of the country are unveil electric charging sta- just added two charging sta-
above $4 a gallon and signifi- tions at a bus depot in Cam- tions at a public parking ga-
cantly more in some spots. den, outside Philadelphia. rage. Charlotte, North Caro-
lina, Cleveland and Saginaw,
On Monday, New Jersey of- There are now about 625 Michigan, are among cities
ficials awarded $1 million in vehicle charging stations in adding charging stations.
grants to install electric ve- New Jersey
hicle charging stations in 24 It’s happening in other coun-
tourist areas around the state. On the federal side, the city of tries, too. Glasgow, Scotland,
(AP) — A wave of new spike in gasoline prices. The idea was to help spur Hoboken, just outside New is adding 164 new stations
electric vehicle charging tourism by reassuring visitors York City, is getting up to six this year.
stations across the coun- Though most of the plans who own electric vehicles new charging stations in a
try is coming as interest were in the works before al- that they can come to a vaca- deal also announced Monday. Almost half a million electric
in alternatives to gasoline- ready high gas prices surged tion spot in New Jersey and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez vehicles were sold in the U.S.
powered vehicles is on the because of the war in Ukraine, not run out of power to get said the money from a federal last year, according to Kelly
rise and could heighten the timing may work in favor back home. spending bill “will help ease Blue Book.
further due to a global of electric vehicle makers and our transition to electric ve-

US says Myanmar repression of Muslim Rohingya is genocide

(AP) — Violent repres- of civilians throughout the the Trump administration, ings of civilians since at least
sion of the largely Mus- country have been killed and given potential legal ramifi- Human Rights Watch said 2016. Blinken said evidence
lim Rohingya population imprisoned as part of ongo- cations of such a finding. The the U.S. and other govern- showed the violence wasn’t
in Myanmar amounts to ing repression of anyone op- delay in the determination ments should seek justice isolated, but part of a system-
genocide, U.S. Secretary posed to the ruling junta. had drawn criticism from for crimes carried out by the atic program that amounts to
of State Antony Blinken The determination that a both inside and outside the military and impose stronger crimes against humanity.
said Monday, a declaration genocide has occurred could government. sanctions against its leader-
intended to both gener- lead other nations to increase ship. Previous determinations of
ate international pressure pressure on the government, Human rights groups also genocide by the U.S. include
and lay the groundwork which is already facing accu- welcomed the determina- A 2018 State Department re- campaigns against Uyghurs
for potential legal action. sations of genocide at the In- tion, which is similar to find- port documented instances and other largely Muslim
ternational Court of Justice ings already made by other of Myanmar’s military raz- minorities in China as well as
Authorities made the deter- in The Hague. countries, including Canada, ing villages and carrying out in Bosnia, Rwanda, Iraq and
mination based on confirmed France and Turkey. rapes, tortures and mass kill- Darfur.
accounts of mass atrocities on Rohingya, from Muslim
civilians by Myanmar’s mili- Myanmar’s western Rakh-
tary in a widespread and sys- ine state, faced systematic
tematic campaign against the persecution at the hands of
ethnic minority, Blinken said the Buddhist majority for
in a speech at the U.S. Holo- decades under both the mili-
caust Memorial Museum. tary junta that ruled the na-
tion for decades as well as the
It is the eighth time since the democratically elected gov-
Holocaust that the U.S. has ernment.
concluded a genocide has oc-
curred. The secretary of state More than 700,000 Rohingya
noted the importance of call- have fled from Buddhist-
ing attention to inhumanity majority Myanmar to refugee
even as horrific attacks occur camps in Bangladesh since
elsewhere in the world, in- August 2017, when the mili-
cluding Ukraine. tary launched an operation
aimed at clearing them from
The government of Myan- the country following attacks
mar, also known as Burma, is by a rebel group.
already under multiple layers
of U.S. sanctions since a mil- The status of the plight of the
itary coup ousted the demo- Rohingya had been under ex-
cratically elected government tended review by U.S. gov-
in February 2021. Thousands ernment legal experts since