Some of us remember the 1970’s and the ‘Arab Oil Embargo’. As a result, the Carter administration called for, and we had ‘CAFE standards’ for auto fuel economy and credits for alternative energy. We provided a ‘loan’ to Iacoccoa and the Chrysler Corp. They used the loan to retool, and came out with a line of vehicles that were fuel efficient. So now we must ask, What did we learn from those experiences? The answer appears to be, Very little!

In 1990, California enacted a ‘Zero-emissions mandate’ which would require 10 percent of vehicles sold there to have ‘Zero-emissions’. So in 1996, GM began to ‘lease only’ the first version of their EV-1 which had lead-acid batteries. Discontinued in 1999, the second generation of EV-1 come to the market with nickel-hydrid batteries. During this period, GM also manufactured a ’stretch version’ of the same platform using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which had a fuel economy of 60 mpg when compared to gasoline; and a EV-1 parallel hybrid (similar to the Opel Astra Diesel Hybrid) with a 1.3 liter DTI diesel which achieved a fuel economy of 80 mpg.

In 2002 the Bush administration sided with automakers to fight ‘Zero-emissions’ and in 2003 GM discontinued the EV-1 program. Where would we be if we had continued this and programs at Ford and Chrysler? Taking the liberty of sumarizing, the March 13, 2007 issue of Newsweek attributes GM Chairman and CEO, Rick Wagoner with a statement that “AXING EV-1 and not putting the right resources into hybrids” was one of the worst decisions of his tenure. GM’s R&D Chief, Larry Burns is also attributed with an evaluation that they could have had the ‘Chevy Volt’ 10 years earlier.

A total of 1160 EV-1 vehicles were manufactured. They could only be leased with restrictions. Though opinions often were that it exceeded the testing program, GM said “NO” and evoked the terms and conditions of the lease. The vehicles were returned and destroyed by GM.

Despite those few vehicles generating 1948 people signing an ‘interest to purchase’ in an environment with a total lack of marketing, GM discontinued the program. 50 of those vehicles were stripped of parts and the shells donated to museums and colleges.

Finally, one might question if the fact that GM is one of the biggest contributors to the Smithsonian, but on June 16, 2006 the Smithsonian removed the EV-1 electric sedan from display to make room for a ‘SUV’ display.

One can only ask, “If we learn little or nothing from history, why do we continue to print history books?

Rubin was a major pusher of creative debt packaging, to include credit default swaps – a.k.a legalized gambling. It looks like Rubin got a lot richer and now has the privilege of advising Barack Obama.

Our financial industry, to include major banks and Wall Street have spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress. They’ll get at least a trillion dollars in taxpayer funded bail outs.

Robert Rubin