Movie review: Who Killed the Electric Car?
Tonight Monday, July 17, 2006, I saw this movie, Who Killed the Electric Car? at the Clearview Claridge Cinemas, 486 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey.The movie was an eye opener about corporate greed and mismanagement of the oil companies and the auto companies, and the bad decisions of the current Bush administration.
This movie should be shown to all middle and high school students across America. This will help them understand why they and their parents are suffering paying high gasoline prices today and even higher home heating oil prices this winter.
The greatest point made was that America's dependence on foreign oil has almost doubled since we had the gas rationing lines during Jimmy Carter's administration. I would have been angry to learn we remain at the same level of foreign oil dependency as during the Carter administration, but no...It has almost doubled.
California has bad smog, with many people falling to lung problems and legislated to the car manufacturers to develop basically an electric car. The car was developed and ran unexpectedly well for the few years it was available. The electric cars built during the initial 2 years used Delco batteries and had limitations of about 60 miles battery between charges. But since the third year, newer technology was used and the distance was doubled. The primary car was developed by GM Saturn as the EV1, but other manufacturers had their models, too. 90% of the daily driving is for distances of less than 60 miles per day. The cars were seen as a success.
But the Saturn EV1 production was limited to 4 cars per day, and GM never attempted to roll it out on a mass production line. They lobbied the California to lower the state's mandates which the state did. GM did not promote the vehicle in a productive manner. GM never sold but leased all of the vehicles and they crushed the cars when returned at the end of the lease (except for a few in museums). They performed to obey the law, but also to get out of the electric car business.
The oil companies spent millions in public relations to get California to elliminate the electric car laws in their own best interest to sell more oil.
President Bush's administration went to court to stop the electric car legislation in California on the side of the auto manufacturer's and big oil interests.
President Bush's alternative was the hydrogen fuel vehicle which was several years ago and still at least 10 more years from production, if ever (remember if it is not good for the oil lobby it is not good for the country?).
There are no more electric vehicles. If I was a GM stockholder I should want to sue the executives and directors for crushing or shredding millions of dollars worth of valuable corporate assets.
The cardinal sin is that America could have had hundreds of thousands of electric cars on the road today, using clean alternative fuel. A month after the electric cars were sabotaged, GM came out with the Hummer. The brains at GM thought America needed a gas hog rather than an electric car. If they were honest, maybe they would be a more viable company, today.
posted by God Bless America - Bob @ 1:45 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home