Report

Illinois bill would make ICEing illegal

Fine Would Start At $75 Plus A Tow

Any Chicago native well knows that here's no shortage of ice in Illinois during the wintertime. Now, one well-placed phone call to a local politico may ensure that there's going to be very little ICEing throughout the state either. And, no, we don't mean Chicago Blackhawks hockey.

The term ICEing (with the emphasis on the "ICE," or internal combustion engine) applies to when a conventional gas-powered vehicle parks in a space reserved for a plug-in vehicle or next to a publicly-accessible charging station. Aside from maybe being a recipient of real bad juju from violating the unwritten (or, in some cases, written) laws of electric-vehicle etiquette, though, that driver usually doesn't suffer for it.

That may soon change, however, after one rather perturbed plug-in vehicle owner put in a well-placed call that eventually got the attention of the state's General Assembly. Now, a law may be enacted that would enforce fines on ICE-ers, Plug In Sites says.

First, there would be an ICEing fine along the lines of $75 to $100. Then, of course, the car would be towed. And those of us who, ahem, have experienced their car being towed know that it's the impounding of the vehicle that's the real expensive part. If this de-ICEing law goes into effect, the new penalties would start as soon as next year.

Last year, the city of Raleigh, NC discovered that the anti-ICEing fines it had collected amounted to enough to buy the city a new plug-in vehicle.

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