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Congress, the press, and National Public Radio pay more attention to the health of oil companies than they pay to the health of America. For the Bush administration, Big Oil is where the money and power comes from; no one seems willing to develop real alternatives to Big Oil's sordid monopoly.
| General Motors (GM) killed the Electric car all over again when it forced California regulators to let it out of its previous promises to mass-produce Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV), either Fuel Cell or Battery-powered Electric cars. On Mar. 27, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger's appointed Air Resources Board (CARB) released GM from the agreement of March and April, 2003 for mass production of Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) by 2014 at the latest. At that time, GM claimed that the proven fleet of battery Electric cars was too expensive, and that the future was Fuel Cell cars. GM asked only for five years for research, after which they would swing into production of tens of thousands of Fuel Cell cars. Electric car advocates had cast doubt on this promise at the time, as documented in the 2006 movie "Who Killed the Electric Car". Under color of this commitment to build Fuel Cell cars, GM crushed its fleet of Electric cars, the EV1, and CARB made no protest. The only ZEV left in the hands of the public are 328 Toyota battery Electric cars, the RAV4-EV, last sold in 2002. Now, five years later, fuel cell research has failed, as GM now admits. But instead of going back to building the proven Electric car, GM went back to CARB to be released from any obligation to build mass quantities of any Zero Emission Vehicle. Schwarzenegger's chosen successor for CARB Chair, Dan Sperling, not only caved in to this outrageous demand, but announced further plans to formally reduce the ZEV mandate to a mere research program. There will be no mass production planned even in the distant future. Because of this "overhaul", GM's phony commitment to clean cars will remain a demonstration program only, with no ZEV for sale to the general public. No one is covering this story; the media seems to be ignoring it. Yet it's the most important story of our time, impacting everything from foreign oil wars to clean energy, pollution, refineries, economics and permanent lung damage in kids living near Internal Combustion cars. No media outlet seems willing to point out that Schwarzenegger's CARB is little more than an adjunct to GM Public Relations. CARB continues its inane career, spending $750 million a year fining small business, making much noise over nothing, while unwilling to face up to the big bully, Big Oil and GM. A study presented to CARB last year showed that children living in close proximity to Internal Combustion exhaust from freeways had more permanent lung damage than children living a mile away. Both have permanently degraded lung development in the critical years of 12 through 18. One active agent is "NOx" (anhydrous nitrous acid), which is oxidized in the presence of Ozone to form anhydrous nitric acid, associated with lung lesions in children and others. In addition, "SOx" (anhydrous sulfurous acid) is released by upwind refineries and by diesel engines, oxidized into anhydrous sulfuric acid, further stunting lungs. There will be no solution to these and other health problems until some Governor's CARB is honest enough to hold GM to its promises. This CARB has implicitly agreed to allow continued emissions to destroy lung tissue long into the future. CARB's surrender means there will be no free market consumer choice for oil-free cars. Schwarzenegger's weakness also betokens inaction against what might be called the Big Oil money machine, the pernicious flow of wealth from our country to foreign oil dictators. In exchange, we get a commodity which, after use, leaves only pollution, poverty, disease and ashes in the debris of our crippled economy. |
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