2/23/26 News Roundup: Towing Physics, Boiling Water on Batteries, and the Battle for Park Funding

Today, I’m starting something new to go with my posts about my own electric RVing and travel experiences: a daily news roundup that focuses on things that affect sustainable outdoor recreation. Let me know what you think, and if this is something readers end up loving, I’ll keep doing it a few times a week!

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If there is one thing we learn over and over in the cleantech and outdoor space, it’s that physics and weather don’t care about marketing brochures. Today, we are looking at some brutal winter storms shutting down the East Coast, avalanche realities in the Rockies, and a massive legislative fight brewing over how we pay to keep our public lands open.

But we also have some genuinely cool hardware updates. Let’s look at what works, what doesn’t, and how we are getting out there this week.

The Top Story: The LASSO Act and the Fight for Public Land Revenue

There is a massive policy shift winding its way through the House right now that could change how our trailheads and remote roads are maintained. The Subcommittee on Federal Lands just reviewed H.R. 34, known as the LASSO Act. The bill proposes taking 10% of the revenue generated on federal public lands—from things like recreation, energy development, and grazing—and dropping it directly into the Social Security Trust Fund.

The idea is to give the American public a direct financial stake in the economic output of our public lands. But here is the wrench in the works: the Department of the Interior heavily relies on those exact revenues to fund the massive deferred maintenance backlog in our national parks, manage hazardous wildfire fuels, and fix washed-out roads.

If you strip 10% of the gross revenue out of the land management budget, those trailhead bathrooms aren’t going to fix themselves. This comes right as the National Park Service is heavily tweaking its pricing, raising annual passes to $250 for non-residents while keeping them at $80 for U.S. residents to try and cover these massive operational costs. There’s a lot more to this story (including accusations of isolationism, racism, etc), but the main point still stands:

If they’re looking to bring more money into the parks, removing 10% of it makes no sense. Public policy needs to make sense!

Charging Update: I-80 Gets Lit Up

If you drive an EV through Pennsylvania to hit the state forests or the PA Wilds, Interstate 80 is your main lifeline. Thankfully, PennDOT just opened three new federally-funded fast charging stations right on the I-80 corridor at Kylertown, Mill Hall, and Mifflinville. On top of that, the state is rolling out another $100 million for community-focused chargers this year.

Also, if you are eyeing the upcoming 2026 Jeep Recon or Dodge Charger Daytona, Stellantis just officially confirmed that their EVs are gaining access to Tesla’s massive 36,000-stall Supercharger network. The charging map is finally filling in where the pavement ends.

The Quick List (Other Notable Stories You Can Read Up On)

• The Physics of EV Towing: We have new field data on the 2026 GMC Sierra EV AT4 towing a 30-foot camper. Yes, it has 12,500 pounds of towing capacity and the instant torque is incredible for trailer sway and hill climbs. But pulling a giant box punches a massive hole in the air, meaning your range will take a brutal hit from the aerodynamic drag. Know your route, and know your charger pull-throughs.

• Boiling Water on a 10-pound Battery: The new Bluetti Elite 30 V2 portable power station is breaking the rules of small batteries. Despite only having a 288Wh capacity, it runs a 600W inverter that can actually boil a kettle of water or run a rice cooker without tripping the safety switches. It is perfect for a quick-deploy tailgate or running a Starlink Mini.

• Avalanche Realities in Idaho: A 21-year-old snowmobiler was tragically killed by an avalanche in Clark County, Idaho. Heavy new snow has completely overloaded weak layers from January, making it incredibly easy to trigger massive slides even from low-angle terrain. Check your local avalanche center forecasts before you hit the backcountry.

Electrify America Upgrades in CA & FL: EA is currently taking several stations offline (including key adventure routes in Bishop, Garberville, and Olancha, CA) to rip out old hardware and install their latest generation of liquid-cooled chargers. It’s a short-term pain for long-term reliability.

The Last Word

We can obsess over battery chemistry and torque curves all we want, but at the end of the day, Mother Nature is the chief engineer of every outdoor trip. Whether it’s a blizzard shutting down the entire highway grid in New York or weak snowpack causing an avalanche in Idaho, respect the weather, carry redundant gear, and know when it’s time to just stay home or find someplace else to go.