what i'm watching: who killed the electric car

We recently (finally) saw "Who Killed The Electric Car?". I had a few minor problems with the movie, but it's very informative, and worth seeing.

It was especially interesting to see this movie as the North American auto makers are asking the government - that is, the taxpayers - for enormous sums of money to save their dying business.

Would this money be attached to guarantees to build and market more fuel efficient vehicles? We know the vehicles already exist, all they have to do is build and sell them - instead of suppressing and destroying them.

Would this money even be attached to a guarantee of jobs in North America?

Neither will happen, and neither should this bailout.

Meanwhile, if you haven't seen this movie, please do. I felt it could have come down much harder on the US government and its connection to oil wealth, and I don't feel the consumer can be rightly blamed for the failure of the electric car, according to what we saw in the movie itself. But those are small disagreements. Overall, it's an important film.

To learn more or to get involved, visit the website of Plug In America, the activist group pressuring the auto industry to bring back the electric car that they so loved.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

not so fast

Not everyone thinks the Conservative government is a lock. Canada's opposition Conservative Party, which is set to bring down the minority Liberal government later this week, was hit by a new opinion poll on Monday that showed it was trailing in the country's most vote-rich region. The Leger Marketing poll for the Sun chain of newspapers put support for the Liberals in the powerful central province of Ontario at 43 percent compared with 31 percent for the Conservatives. Ontario, a Liberal stronghold at the federal level for the past 12 years, accounts for 106 of the 308 seats in House of Commons, and no party can hope to form a government without doing well there. . . . Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals have been badly hurt by a corruption scandal and Conservative leader Stephen Harper says the government must be defeated as soon as possible. The Leger figures, however, suggest there is no guarantee Harper can end 12 years of Liberal rule. Thanks, ALPF! I must say, I...
Read more

dipstick

So there won't be an election yet. Talk about a squeaker . Feel free to tell us how you feel about this, unless it's all been said already, then feel free not to. ALPF mustered his courage and sent more links, so I have some good commentary to post. I found this Macleans story on the Conservative party's reaction to Stronach's decision - and public reaction to that reaction - very interesting. Canadians seem almost universally turned off by the name-calling and sexist slurs. On the other hand, when a certain governor made his "girly men" pronouncement, his constituency howled with glee. (Which is not to say the rest of us weren't appalled.) The Macleans article also notes that not all the sexism came from politicians: Some of the most sexist characterizations of Stronach didn't come from her political adversaries, but from media. Montreal's La Presse newspaper ran a cartoon of Martin leaning out his car window to solicit a street-walking Stronach...
Read more