There is no love sincerer than the love of food -George Bernard Shaw

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Time to stand on my Environmental Soap Box..

Last night I watched the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and I almost cried! It is a 2006 documentary that follows the creation and destruction of the EV-1, the first fully electric vehicle created and destroyed by General Motors. Created in California as a way to reduce the increasing amounts of smog in areas such as Los Angeles, the EV-1 was leased to about 800 consumers, who loved the quiet, fast, zero emissions, little futuristic vehicles.

Then the California Air Resources Board ended the zero emissions mandate that began the program in the first place, and GM repossessed every single EV-1 and crushed and shredded them.

HUH? Despite the long waiting lists for more EV-1s, customers begging to re-lease or buy their cars, and outstanding protests, GM claimed their reason for discontinuing the electric cars was that the battery technology was insufficient and that the demand was not high enough. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched car and oil company executives BS there way out of straight forward questions about why the electric car isn't on the market! The people who drove the cars LOVED them and were willing to pay millions of dollars to keep them! The documentary explores every suspect of who killed the electric car and why it was killed, and all signs point to the money made by the oil industries and the continuing flow of money from maintenance on gasoline cars. With the amount of oil currently spewing into the Gulf of Mexico and the ever-increasing amount of carbon each one of us releases into the atmosphere, I hope that people realize how important it is to have an electric car available. I'm praying that the newest version, Nissan Leaf, can survive this time around!

Zero emissions, charge it at night and go all day and cute as a button, the Nissan Leaf is expected to be released in Hawaii in early 2011. I want this car so bad! Everyone should watch this documentary, because its such an eye-opener to what we are up against in making our dreams for clean air and a better future happen.


Off my soapbox now! I promise the next post will be about food! :]

1 comment:

  1. My brother in law gave me this video for Christmas a few years ago... still haven't watched it. I'll have to go dig it up.

    ReplyDelete