u/Ok_Train_2139

Some of you may remember I was pretty vocal about Jones Act and offshore wind concerns last year. Rather than keep arguing about it online, I'd rather bring in people who actually work in the field.

I’ve been in touch with Sal Mercogliano, and he has preliminarily agreed to come to SUNY Maritime for a campus discussion to discuss policy and what current developments may mean for SUNY Maritime students. Before I take this to the communications department formally, I wanted to gauge student interest and figure out which club or campus group would be the most appropriate host.

I've also reached out to a faculty member for advice, but haven't heard back yet, and I'm open to changing the format based on feedback. Ideally, I'd like this to be more than just a general maritime talk. I'm hoping to add someone from the offshore wind industry so the discussion can cover how maritime policy, the Jones Act, offshore wind, shipbuilding, crewing, and energy policy intersect, and, most importantly, what those developments may mean for where maritime jobs come from and the industries our licenses support.

Some of us have different views on how significant these issues are, and that's exactly why I think hearing from people who work in this space would be valuable. Sal is one of the better people to explain what is actually happening in U.S. maritime policy, what is noise, what is real, and what students should be paying attention to.

This would not need to be partisan. In fact, I think it would be more valuable if it wasn’t. The core question is practical:

What should SUNY Maritime students understand right now about the future of U.S. maritime jobs?

If there's interest, I'd like to help move this forward with the appropriate club, faculty support, and the communications department. My initial thought was SGA, but there may be a better fit. I'm happy to help organize it or simply support whichever group is best positioned to host it.

Sal Mercogliano is one of the country's best-known maritime historians and policy commentators, a SUNY Maritime alumnus, and someone who regularly briefs the public on shipping, logistics, and maritime policy. Your parents are probably huge fans, he maintains 700,000 subscribers as part of that aforementioned influence: https://www.youtube.com/@wgowshipping

Whether you agree with my concerns or not, I think most people would agree Sal has earned a reputation for being fact-driven rather than partisan. That's exactly why I think he'd be a valuable person for students to hear from.

I got the attached text from my wife today. This is Bolt #4 and #5 for our house, previously I had a '21 and after that two 2023s. These are our 7th and 8th EVs overall.

Long story short I now understand that:

1. Chevrolet sales peoples commission on Bolts is universally or near universally attached to ensuring you make the OnStar call. You're not allowed to deny the call.
2. OnStar representatives over 50% of the time (3 out of 5 Bolts so far) will outright ignore what you tell them on that call. You will get signed up for a 30 day trial for something you specifically said you do not want. You can ask them to remove your credit card and they will not (happened on 1 car). You will get charged for the plan you didn't want and explicitly said no to.
   1. Make sure your credit card is not on your OnStar account. Period.
   2. They do this because it's also commission-based
3. You will get spammed while you're driving, repeatedly over and over and over again for things you do not want. Buy this please. Try Gemini please. Put your password in please. Gemini is good. Please sign up for OnStar. Did you know you can have Gemini? You should try Gemini. The "You can't touch the screen" stuff is completely set aside for them to sell you things and track you

I experienced increasing frustrations across both of these cars including the well covered infotainment problems, brake boost dying on one, I have never received a text message to the infotainment no matter how many times I connect or click settings, there's just, no, text, messages.

I have been a member of ChevyBolt.org for 5+ years with 5500 posts and I posted about this. I was a little frustrated and the thread got locked. I started a new thread minus the frustrations pointing out that specifically sales people are denied commission if they do not sign you up for this. They deleted that and warned that if I tried again they would ban me. I made a post in the support forums asking why it was being censored with literal 0 shown frustration, no swearing, etc. Banned.

tl;dr: My 4th and 5th Chevy Bolts owned as a family are trash. You should find a different car. Also, why is ChevyBolt.org admin staff refusing to let this be aired?

Edit: I get many of you have had no problems. I even say "only" 3 out of 5 cars I've had issues. Don't gaslight the people who have problems. Also don't forget about this, it does matter.

>Preliminary readings from sensors placed in the canal indicate that the shade from the solar panels reduced water evaporation by up to 70 percent. The panels also slowed photosynthesis, reducing aquatic weeds and algae by up to 85 percent.

This was in the Times today, gifted below.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/22/climate/california-canals-solar-panels-water-nexus.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sVA.fEJO.fOaH5xGhp5Sw&smid=url-share

Installed today on my 2027 Bolt LT.

Video: https://youtu.be/cLeTP-fsYmM?si=et4nZtQsBx13h1VW

Apple CarPlay is working wirelessly so far.

Initial impressions:

• Setup took about 10 minutes
• Installation itself was easy
• Had to download the EV Play app and create an account (biggest annoyance so far)
• No overall conclusion

I'll post an update after I've spent some time with it maybe

I posted this on ChevyBolt.org but figured this is a different audience: https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/apple-carplay-and-android-auto-working-on-2027-bolt.62327/

Edit: Apologies, it's this adapter: https://evplay.io/

How concerned should we actually be here? I'm sick of people telling me zero concern.

So far in 87 days we have 97 vessels doing things Americans should be doing. This is our future. Being taken by China and India. And we have 180-200 vessels including MSC? This seems to be going great.

I'm sitting here with an open bursar bill and I'm wondering if I even continue because everyone is wrong if they tell you where this is going to go and they're wrong if they tell you your future is fine with no Jones Act.

Source: https://www.cato.org/jones-act-waiver-tracker

Another good source to track employment (so far ok): https://jonesacttankertracker.com/

We have a thread on ChevyBolt.org to see if we can fit 15s on the 2027s the same as we could on the 2023s and earlier. The answer is yes. Unknown offset, 15x7s off of a Sonic for winter tires; though I think some people are interested in this for fuel savings.

Anyways, thought you guys would find this equally as interesting.

https://www.chevybolt.org/threads/is-wheel-downsizing-possible-on-2027-bolt.62154/page-3?post_id=1097251#post-1097251

SO MUCH WINNING

https://gcaptain.com/chinese-cosco-tanker-delivers-asphalt-to-connecticut-under-jones-act-waiver/

Millenium Chevrolet's first (2) 2027 Bolt(s) sold! I was surprised by this. C'mon guys, buy these cars, we need to convince GM to keep this going!

Stonebriar, TX has the cheapest nationally but I went locally. All of them are pulling the BS of "you must use our financing and not special to get this price."

Earliest review no one cares about: Mostly improved. I find myself pissed about the "our sandbox, gtfo, now give us money" OnStar approach. If you work in R&D for GM, you really don't want this. You're going to be judged on your software and if you're providing crap software for top dollar subscription while blocking 3rd parties this is a failed car company without adjustment. It's fine Super Cruise costs $2500, it should also be possible for me to buy Comma 4. The public will notice this and be as pissed as me about it.