Have you seen
this movie yet? If you haven't, you should.
I first became aware of the movie when I went to go see "An Inconvenient Truth." There was a trailer for it and it looked intriguing--an expose of how the auto industry and the oil companies colluded together to stifle innovation and maintain the destructive, but all-too-profitable status quo.
I got quite wrapped up in everything and forgot about it until this past Monday--when an electric Toyota Rav4 pulled up at the stoplight beside me on my way to work and the driver had me roll down my window. He asked me if I had seen the movie yet, and encouraged me to go see it. I guess he asked me because I drive a Prius, which would signal an interest in things of this sort. Either way, when I got to work I looked up the showtimes, and scheduled myself for a Friday evening viewing.
Turns out, on retrospect, that the guy at the stoplight was none other than the film's director, Chris Paine.
Overall, I think the film was very good, with a lot of high-quality information. It chronicles the process of the development, discontinuation and destruction of the GM EV1, and seeks to analyze all the contributing factors that led to the abandonment of the concept.
As a lifelong Californian, the film hit very close to home. Much of the film centers around pressure from the auto industry to force the California Air Resource Board to abandon its stipulations that a certain percentage of vehicles sold in the state be Zero Emission Vehicles. As a teenager in the late 90s I can distinctly remember the excitement and promise that the EV1 generated. I remember the proliferation of EV1 charging stations at sites throughout Southern California. I remember seeing electric vehicle charging stations being installed in the parking lot at the Santa Monica Pier, and admiring the ability of consumers and local governments to work together to help do something right for our planet and our country.
And I remember the decline. I remember the protests. I remember that rainy day in March of 2005 when I drove by the vigil outside of GM's facility in Burbank, still smarting from the previous Novemeber's setback. I remember the offer to buy the cars, followed by GM's assertion that legal liability prevented their sale. And I remember March 15, when the last of the EV1s were taken away for destruction.
The film brought a lot of those memories back, so it had a certain emotional appeal for me that it might not have for viewers in other areas--but the film is still definitely worth a look for the information alone.
The role of the oil and auto industry, and their allies in the Bush administration, is all too obvious, and is replete with lying, duplicity, influence-peddling, and conflict of interest. That much is obvious. But there were plenty of smaller things mentioned that I hadn't even thought of.
One of them concerns the role of Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology--the film makes the assertion that fuel cell cars are being held out as the wave of the future, as opposed to already extant electric technology, for a variety of hidden agendas--namely, that the oil companies can control the means of production of non-renewable hydrogen fuel, should the technology ever become feasible; and that the technology itself is so unfeasible that it will never be realistically achieved, but the industries can still convince the public that it is working on more environmentally friendly options.
The second thing that I hadn't considered was the role of the ancillary products associated with car maintenance, and how widespread consumption of electric vehicles would impact the auto parts industry. An electric engine circumvents the need for motor oil, oil filters, spark plugs and a whole host of other parts, as well as significantly reducing the need for brake replacement (though brakes aren't mentioned in the film).
The only information I would have liked to have, but felt was significantly lacking, is the total impact of converting our gasoline-powered cars into an electric fleet. How would that affect the power grid? What new infrastructure would be needed? Would the oil imported to sustain the electrical grid be less than the oil required to power the cars? I don't feel that the movie adequately addessed these issues. It did address the environmental issues by saying that if we converted the entire fleet to electric cars and supplemented the energy grid by burning coal--the most polluting fuel imaginable--to make up for it, we would still reduce the amount of carbon being put into the air.
All in all, I felt that the movie flowed well with good pacing, kept the audience entertained and had very good interviews. I recommend it, and encourage people to go see it. You can find locations and showtimes at the film's website, which also has good information, action items and links:
website
And lastly, if you think that other people should know about this film, please go ahead and throw this a recommend.
(and no, Chris Paine did not pay me to write this.)