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Certain people in power bank on your lack of memory, and they are not interested in the least in a society that can critically think for themselves.
I saw a few headlines recently and have to share them with you:
• “Ford, GM, Chrysler to boost non-gasoline vehicles”
• “GM’s new ‘dual hybrid’ technology boosts energy efficiency by 25 percent”
• “Auto companies create fake grassroots campaigns against fuel efficiency standards”
Also nestled in those articles are tidbits about GM and Chrysler potentially merging, and how they would both like to try a “new” technology like an electric car. Now, a lot of people reading the first two will think, “Well, that’s good news — dropping our reliance on fossil fuels.”
Absolutely, but we are going a bit in reverse. Let me explain.
In 1996, in California, GM rolled out the EV1. This was a completely electric car. Essentially, you paid 60 cents a “gallon” for fueling up. They had a range of about 160 miles, which is adequate for what the vast majority of us drive every day.
A decade later, GM, despite owner’s protestations and pleas to continue their leases or buy them outright, rounded up all the EV1’s on the road (still fully functional) and crushed each and every one. “But,” said Ed Begley Jr., “the electric car is not for everyone, it can only meet the needs of 90 percent of the population.” This is statistically accurate.
This is why it is nauseating to hear about how we’re making hybrids more fuel efficient or trying out “new” technology, when it has already been in existence. They just assume you are a complete idiot.
So, why were they destroyed? See the New York Times headline “White House joins fight against electric cars.” Who was already in the fight was big oil. They are absolutely not interested in technology that won’t line their pockets, and what was it, four or five years ago they JUST started making “concessions” to allow hybrids? Did Condoleeza Rice, formerly of the Chevron Board of Directors, or Cheney of Halliburton, have any input? I’ll leave you with that imponderable.
But the federal government did join in a lawsuit against the state of California over these very vehicles. In discussing GM’s reversal of interest since the EV1, Tom Everhart, a former GM Board Member and PhD said, “General Motors made a commitment to the Hummer because they could see that the Hummer would make them money.” Alrighty, then.
To be fair, the first wave of these zippy (yes, they could peel out) little cars had batteries that only allowed a 70-mile range, but that was corrected to over double that — a decade ago. Consumers were also a bit skittish after being asked to drop fully gasoline powered autos (no Prius, yet) and switch over to electric. Even so, demand was increasing as GM terminated this line of vehicles and acted like they never existed.
Additionally, you may be wondering why someone else hasn’t decided to try the same sort of thing, another car company, maybe? Ask Chevron, they bought the patent to the NiMH battery used for these vehicles.
Knowing all of this, and the fact that it is all easily verifiable through simple searches, I think it is fair to say that yes, we were screwed out of a technology to further our dependence on oil, the vast majority of which we use is foreign. The same White House that helped kill this electric car, found itself in a war just a short time later, securing the last trillion barrels of oil left on this earth; so big oil can make their final one hundred trillion dollars off of you and me so that we can then move onto “hydrogen.”
So, do the people who control the marketplace, these corporate giants, their friends, and the people they help elect really care about you and I? Looking back at these past couple of months, you betcha. (wink)
(Christopher Mullally welcomes comments to: christophermullally@gmail.com)
I saw a few headlines recently and have to share them with you:
• “Ford, GM, Chrysler to boost non-gasoline vehicles”
• “GM’s new ‘dual hybrid’ technology boosts energy efficiency by 25 percent”
• “Auto companies create fake grassroots campaigns against fuel efficiency standards”
Also nestled in those articles are tidbits about GM and Chrysler potentially merging, and how they would both like to try a “new” technology like an electric car. Now, a lot of people reading the first two will think, “Well, that’s good news — dropping our reliance on fossil fuels.”
Absolutely, but we are going a bit in reverse. Let me explain.
In 1996, in California, GM rolled out the EV1. This was a completely electric car. Essentially, you paid 60 cents a “gallon” for fueling up. They had a range of about 160 miles, which is adequate for what the vast majority of us drive every day.
A decade later, GM, despite owner’s protestations and pleas to continue their leases or buy them outright, rounded up all the EV1’s on the road (still fully functional) and crushed each and every one. “But,” said Ed Begley Jr., “the electric car is not for everyone, it can only meet the needs of 90 percent of the population.” This is statistically accurate.
This is why it is nauseating to hear about how we’re making hybrids more fuel efficient or trying out “new” technology, when it has already been in existence. They just assume you are a complete idiot.
So, why were they destroyed? See the New York Times headline “White House joins fight against electric cars.” Who was already in the fight was big oil. They are absolutely not interested in technology that won’t line their pockets, and what was it, four or five years ago they JUST started making “concessions” to allow hybrids? Did Condoleeza Rice, formerly of the Chevron Board of Directors, or Cheney of Halliburton, have any input? I’ll leave you with that imponderable.
But the federal government did join in a lawsuit against the state of California over these very vehicles. In discussing GM’s reversal of interest since the EV1, Tom Everhart, a former GM Board Member and PhD said, “General Motors made a commitment to the Hummer because they could see that the Hummer would make them money.” Alrighty, then.
To be fair, the first wave of these zippy (yes, they could peel out) little cars had batteries that only allowed a 70-mile range, but that was corrected to over double that — a decade ago. Consumers were also a bit skittish after being asked to drop fully gasoline powered autos (no Prius, yet) and switch over to electric. Even so, demand was increasing as GM terminated this line of vehicles and acted like they never existed.
Additionally, you may be wondering why someone else hasn’t decided to try the same sort of thing, another car company, maybe? Ask Chevron, they bought the patent to the NiMH battery used for these vehicles.
Knowing all of this, and the fact that it is all easily verifiable through simple searches, I think it is fair to say that yes, we were screwed out of a technology to further our dependence on oil, the vast majority of which we use is foreign. The same White House that helped kill this electric car, found itself in a war just a short time later, securing the last trillion barrels of oil left on this earth; so big oil can make their final one hundred trillion dollars off of you and me so that we can then move onto “hydrogen.”
So, do the people who control the marketplace, these corporate giants, their friends, and the people they help elect really care about you and I? Looking back at these past couple of months, you betcha. (wink)
(Christopher Mullally welcomes comments to: christophermullally@gmail.com)
