Environmental filmmaker Chris Paine, director of the thought-provoking 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?,” examines the politics, personalities and cold hard cash involved in the return of the electric car in an address at Lawrence University.
As part of the college’s Earth Day celebration, Paine presents “How Many Light Bulbs Does it Take to Plug in an Electric Car?” Tuesday, April 26 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. The talk is free and open to the public.
Paine, who tours nationally to speak on behalf of sustainable transportation, will discuss the challenges of electric vehicles to the car industry and the reasons behind their re-emergence.
His latest film, “Revenge of the Electric Car,” is scheduled to make its world premiere on Earth Day (April 22) at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. In “Revenge of the Electric Car,” Paine interviews the CEOs of Renault-Nissan, maker of the electric Leaf, Tesla Motors, which makes a high-performance electric vehicle and former GM vice chairman Robert Lutz, who has become an advocate for the company’s new Chevy Volt.
Paine, who lives in Los Angeles and drives a Telsa Roadster, sees electric vehicles as “something that is fundamentally similar to an iPhone or iPod.” In addition to his advocacy for electric cars, Paine has been active in campaigns to stop deforestation, nuclear testing in Nevada and freeway expansions in California.
