Who Killed The Electric Car ?

We ventured into Asheville to the Artsy-Fartsy theatre to see "Who Killed The Electric Car". Now a lot of the movies at the Fine-Arts theatre are of the art and croissant, tree hugger, Nero jacket-wearing Gerry Garcia genre. This movie really surprised us. It was about how G.M. marketed an electric car in the 70's called the EV1. They were forced to do this by a California mandate to have at least 10% of the new cars sold there to be emission free. In a move reminiscent of Mel Brook's "The Producers" GM built an electric car car they thought would bomb, and people actually wanted it. It was a great car! The cars were able to go about 130 miles on a charge and could go 75 mph. When the car became a success they made it impossible to buy one. You could only lease it after a background check that was more stringent than what was needed to adopt a foster child. Corrupt politicians, big oil, and the big three carmakers all conspired to have all the electric cars confiscated and crushed. It was reminiscent of what G.M. did to all the electric trolleys in the 50's. G.M. replaced them all with Detroit Diesel smoke spewing buses.

Now the government is planning the next scam on the American people; the Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle. The government is poised to spent trillions on this sham technology and in 20 years we will filling up with Shell and Exxon hydrogen at a cost that would make burning Chanel#5 seem cheap. However, there is some hope. People in California are converting their Prius's to plug-in only. Of course this voids the warranty. Electric cars aren't for everyone. I can see not owning one in Montana. For 95% of the driving Americans an electric car with a 300 mile range would meet all their needs. Just rent a Hummer for that once a year cross country road trip. A hundred years ago 2/3 of the cars in America were electric, so where is the progress? As far as the Hydrogen Fuel Cell car that G.W. is promoting, I just keep seeing visions of the Graf Zeppilin Hindenburg. Except this time the flames will be fueled by are taxes and American blood spilled in the mid-east.