Californians Against Utility Abuse

who killed the electric car docu

...Oil companies

The oil industry, through its major lobby group the Western States Petroleum Association, is brought to task for financing campaigns to kill utility efforts to build public car charging stations. Through astroturfing groups like "Californians Against Utility Abuse"they posed as consumers instead of the industry interests they actually represented.

Mobil and other oil companies are also shown to be advertising directly against electric cars in national publications, even when electric cars seem to have little to do with their core business. At the end of the film, Chevron bought patents and controlling interest in Ovonics, the advanced battery company featured in the film, ostensibly to prevent modern NiMH batteries from being used in non-hybrid electric cars.

The documentary also refers to manipulation of oil prices by overseas suppliers in the 1980s as an example of the industry working to kill competition and keep customers from moving toward alternatives to oil

..,

[Trying t

[### Trying to Pull the Plug : Big Oil Companies Sponsor Efforts ...

Los Angeles Times

https://www.latimes.com › archives › la-xpm-1994-04-...](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-14-fi-46003-story.html)

Apr 14, 1994 — A new group called Californians Against Utility Company Abuse--run by Woodward & McDowell, a high-powered Burlingame, Calif.-based public ...o Pull the Plug : Big Oil Companies Sponsor Efforts to Curtail Electric, Natural Gas Cars](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-14-fi-46003-story.html)