The Transportation Sustainability - Essay Example

In Who Killed the Electric Car?, various factors were identified in the collapse of an idea that once seemed to be a step forward in reaching green technology, while in Fuel, there are many contemplations on what possible troubles could appear in the process of embracing renewable fuel sources (mostly biodiesel) and how such obstacles can be overcome by people, particularly those who choose to be advocates for the environment. After watching the films, the issues and conflicts concerned with resolving the issues on sustainable transportation will become apparent to viewers, and it will be up to them on whether or not they will push themselves to understand further the points taken and not mentioned in these films for them to understand the true meanings of the problems that the filmmakers wanted the public to understand, or at least acknowledge the existence of.

First is the documentary about the rise and fall of electric cars in the State of California. This film shows how various players in the automobile and petroleum industry caused the demise of an idea that might have been a better option to conserve the environment and introduce the idea of renewable energy sources for many consumers. For about two decades there have been major developments in the creation of successful car engines running on electricity, and these cars had lesser emission of noxious gases due to the lack of an internal combustion engine that most gas-powered vehicles normally rely on (“Who Killed the Electric Car”).

Aside from the fact that the State of California has been having health issues due to having the highest smog rates in the whole nation, there had been higher than normal cases of children having respiratory issues that become chronic conditions as they age, and these were tied up to the excessive pollutants in the air. In trying to overcome these, the state government challenged automobile makers to mitigate this problem, and they replied with the creation of various electric vehicles for customers.

Initially this initiative shows signs of success however the problems with regards to conflicts of interest emerged when a decade after successfully letting electric vehicles run in the roads the state government was sued not just by automobile makers but also by the federal government (“Who Killed the Electric Car”). A few years after, electric cars were pulled out from the streets and from the customers by the very same companies that initially sold them, causing frustration at the seemingly backward stance of both the state and federal government in the course of finding sustainable and renewable energy resources.

The film would later reveal the factors that were causal in letting go of such a promising kind of technology. Apart from the fact that conflict of interests were observed among policy-makers as most of them were connected to or were formerly connected with