Whodunnit?

An important new movie: "Who Killed the Electric Car" by Chris Paine. It was profiled on PBS's "Now" last night.

We all should be driving electric cars right now. They began showing up on California roads in 1996, but somebody somewhere made the decision to get rid of them.

Look to the usual suspects: big oil companies (for obvious reasons) and auto makers (because electric cars are virtually maintenance free).

This is more than a high-price-of-gas issue. It's a national security issue. The Iraq War proves it; our policy toward Saudi Arabia proves it; the fact that we are exposing ourselves to danger and humiliation throughout the Mideast in pursuit of oil proves it.

As voters and participants in a supposed democracy, we're allowing ourselves to be grossly endangered by the greed and duplicity of giant corporations at the same time they're picking our pockets and cleaning out our bank accounts.

Isn't it time we stopped hollering quasi-religious, superstitious slogans about "free" enterprise and "evil" government, and began to develop rational and practical economic, transportation, and foreign policies?

We can sure as hell do better than this.

The electric car is one sure-fire solution to several of our worst problems, but I don't expect it too soon. That would make too much sense. However, we should absolutely demand from the auto makers a hybrid that can be plugged in overnight and at the job site, and refuse to buy anything less. I think that's coming within the next couple years.