The First Saturday Documentary Movie at the Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship on May 5 will explore the birth, uninspired marketing and subsequent death of the battery electric vehicle in the United States.

The 2006 documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car," will be shown at 7 p.m., May 5, at the Fellowship building, 1150 Fairhope Ave. in Fairhope, across from the Baldwin County Satellite Courthouse.

Here is what Johann Hari, writing in The Independent (U.K.) last month had to say about the vendetta against the electric car: "Somewhere out there, in the dusty basements of the Chevron-Texaco corporate headquarters, there is a technology that can — in one swoop — slash global warming emissions, save millions of people from respiratory illnesses, and stop us trashing the Middle East to seize its oil. Yet it is being deliberately left to rot, in the hope we will all forget about it."

The movie explains how the California Air Resources Board secured state legislation to require that if auto manufacturers wanted to sell gas fueled cars, they had to produce a certain number of electric powered vehicles as well. General Motors reluctantly went along for a while, but then lobbied to have that legislation repealed, claiming that the public did not want electric cars.

Was the public to blame for the death of the electric car? Or was its demise due to the oil companies, batteries, car companies, government, the hydrogen fuel cell, or the California Air Resources Board?

Come to the Unitarian Fellowship building and find out.

Admission is free, but contributions will be accepted.