"they had an ideal product... and they canned it."

I mean- there's probably a song that I could put in the song title. I know! Rihanna!

shut up and drive. bitches.


why all the car talk? (hahaha- Car Talk = great show on NPR). well, the first topic deal ol' Dop. had us cover in Environmental Politics (oh hey class that I clearly couldn't not take) was CAFE standards*- essentially we were/are discussing car efficiency standards in the US. Last Thursday we watched Who Killed the Electric Car, which pissed me off in a way I haven't been pissed off in a long time. like whoa. like who the hell decided (GM! you bastards!) to shut the EV1 production line and then open up the Hummer one right after? This all centered around 1998/2000 which if memory serves me correctly was around the time Americans became obsessed with SUVs, the bigger the better. because Americans like size and wasting stuff? False. Americans are the largest group of consumers in the world - but they will consume what you put out there. put out the EV1 and not the Hummer. there will be no demand for such a ridiculously large vehicle. Even back then I knew something was wrong with the Hummer (I mean, come on, if that's not the most over-compensating vehicle ever then I don't know what is). but how come I had never heard about the EV1 until this movie? I'm aware that it was all based in California etc... but come ON GM. way to f*ck up your own business. the tunnel vision of the US automakers on the short term profits has been its biggest downfall. by far. if you had asked me 10 years ago (yes, at age 10) I could have informed you that the EV1 was a great idea! but I've always been a weird green freak...

"they had an ideal product... and they canned it." - Frankie (a kid in my class whom I have never met before, but who was quite vocal today)

bottom line is: American automakers are currently in the crapper. I can tell you that this "bailout" money had better be put to good use. and by "good use" I mean invested in developing an entire fleet of smaller, more efficient, and greener cars than ever before. cause hey guess what- Japan's already on top of it (2010 Toyota Prius = bigger, which Americans like apparently, more efficient, and even has solar panels on top!). GM was handed a golden opportunity and shot itself in the leg (the foot isn't drastic enough); so now it's limping around begging for money and I can't help but be pretty unsympathetic about it. the only reason I even remotely care is the fact that I now go to school in the Midwest and have seen what the closing down of car factories and the laying off of the auto workers is doing to this section of the nation. it's awful. idea! take that Hummer factory from down the street - which, coincidentally was forced to shut down because of the complete lack of profit the line was making for GM - and retool it into a factory for a new line of cars (think: Chevy Volt, among others). something along those lines. come on, Detroit, get your act together already.

*CAFE = Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards

Who Killed the Electric Car trailer:


also: this guy is awesome (one of the two Vlog Brothers, whom my friend Katie P. just introduced me to)