Bring Back the Electric Car

1136 Words5 Pages
Bring Back the Electric Car The United States depends too much on oil, specifically foreign oil. Not only does it cause environmental issues for the whole world but also economic issues for the United States as well. To fix this problem, American car companies should re-create the purely electric car. If the electric car was brought back, it would not only help the environment, but also if American companies were the ones to take the first steps back to purely electric cars, it could help stabilize our economy. I say ‘bring back’ because the electric car is not an idea that hasn’t been tried before. According to a documentary called ‘Who Killed the Electric Car?’, “In 1996 electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline” (Who Killed). However, 10 years later, electric cars had disappeared from the roads completely. Why? What happened to the electric cars? Before we get into why the electric car should be brought back, we first need to know how it began. In 1990, a law was passed to improve air quality in California by forcing car companies to have a portion of their sales be zero emissions cars. The car companies had to comply if they wanted to sell cars in California, and at first they did. However, as the years went on, the car companies fought the law saying that the rising percentage of how many electric cars they had to sell per year was too high. Led by General Motors, a couple car companies and dealerships banded together and sued the California’s Air Resources Board (C.A.R.B.) for their electric car mandate. At first, it looked like the electric car mandate was going to stay, but then the car companies found a new and powerful ally. President Bush’s administration not only joined the law suit against C.A.R.B., but they announced that the federal government would be funding

More about Bring Back the Electric Car

Open Document