Well, look who’s driving us to the poor house
The shocking story behind the latest auto plant closings is that General Motors already had an electric car in production 20 years ago but chose to shred them. In response to California’s clean air standards, GM leased its EV 1 (electric vehicle 1) to drivers there who wanted an efficient, non-polluting means of transportation. When California relaxed its air quality standards, GM demanded that all the EV1’s be returned to them as the leases expired. Drivers who loved that car demonstrated against the recall to no avail. All the cars were shredded, yes shredded ! Even the ones that hadn’t been driven yet. Why? That’s the question explored in a 2006 documentary called “Who Killed the Electric Car?” (www.whokilledtheelectriccarmovie.com)
The saddest part of this story is that American auto plants could have been producing hybrids years ahead of foreign competitors but chose not to. Americans are now clamoring for more drilling, more gas, more pollution and blaming the environmentalists for the crisis we find ourselves in. What they don’t realize is that unregulated capitalism is at the heart of today’s problems, not the makers of hybrid cars. The goal of a capitalist enterprise is to make as much profit as possible. Oil companies do not concern themselves with the damage to working class families caused by high gas prices. They are not social workers; they are out for the largest CEO bonuses and stock prices That’s the bottom line. We are reaping what was sowed in the 1980’s with the union busting and deregulation frenzy. We got “government off our backs,” and now the oil companies are driving us to the poor house.
Susan Cunningham
Pacific
(7 votes, average: 3.86 out of 5)
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Susan, how would you suggest we make the electricity for all these electric cars?