Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Follow Up: Who Killed The Electric Car?


Who Killed The Electric Car was one of the most popular films we offered during our free Winter Film Series. We love that film!

Do you remember Chelsea Sexton, the woman in the film who worked so hard to lease the electric cars, and then helped lead the effort to get the cars back on the road once they were taken away from the people who had leased them?

Well, she was on Uprising Radio today (no, you can't get it over the air in the High Country) to talk about the upcoming California Air Resources Board meeting, scheduled for March 27th, during which the fate of the electric car again will be discussed:
Perhaps you’ve seen the acclaimed 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? and are outraged that existing technology for making zero-emission vehicles was squelched by political maneuvering. In 2003, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) killed the effort to produce electric cars and instead put into place a research program to investigate hydrogen fuel cell technology. Thousands of electric vehicles on the roads, were wrangled away from their tearful lease-holders and destroyed. Today a little over 1000 electric cars remain on the road. On March 27th, CARB will meet to once again decide on the fate of Electric cars, or so-called Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). At issue is the original goal of auto makers producing 75,000 zero-emission vehicles between 2012 and 2017.

You can listen to the whole interview with Ms. Sexton on Uprising Radio here.

P.S. We'd like to share an email that Ms. Sexton sent to us a few weeks ago thanking our group for showing Who Killed The Electric Car:
Hi,

I came across your blog and saw your comment that you often show "Who Killed the Electric Car?" I just wanted to thank you for that and for continuing to help raise these issues in the national conversation. Our little film lives on word-of-mouth, and the more people involved, the better!

All the best,

chelsea sexton

1 comment:

CelticSolar said...

Great article. I drive one of those few remaining OEM electric cars from the late 90's for my daily commute. It works great. It is proof that it is a political issue, not a technical one. And you might guess from my name how I charge it.
EV+PV=No Co2