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Authorities say the spill began Tuesday, when someone opened the cisterns at an oil refinery turned depot near Monza, letting tens of thousands of liters (thousands of gallons)of oil pour unimpeded into the Lambro River, a tributary of the Po. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the spill. Authorities say it's certain someone intentionally opened the cisterns. By Wednesday, despite efforts to contain the slick with absorbent pads and the closure of hydroelectric locks, the oil seeped from the Lambro into the Po, Italy's longest river, which flows west-to-east across the country. And Thursday, the country's disaster relief chief, Guido Bertolaso, said he expects most of the slick to be cleaned up over the next day. "I believe this is not an irreparable situation," Bertolaso said after meeting with regional officials amid criticism from environmental groups and opposition lawmakers that the government had been slow to respond. "I believe that in the next 24 hours most of this oily mass will be recovered and then, following the course of the river, before it reaches Ferrara and obviously before it reaches the delta, we will be able to recover all the rest," said Bertolaso, head of the civil protection agency. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature says thousands of birds — ducks, herons and others — are nesting and reproducing in the area, which it called one of the most important in Europe. In addition, several fish species — eel, shad and mullet — reproduce in the waters. "The entire ecological and economic system is at risk," WWF warned in a statement. Officials have said water in the area is safe to drink, but provinces have issued fishing and boating bans for affected parts of the Po. Coldiretti said food was safe since farm production is low anyway at this time of the year, and heavy rains have meant that the Po won't be needed for irrigation for some time. "There are no risks for food on the table or damage to cultivation," Coldiretti said in a statement, adding that the rain forecast in coming days means that the oil will be further diluted and the residue dispersed. But those same rains are worrying environmental groups, which have warned that high water levels in the Po mean the oil will spread to the Po's other tributaries and streams, causing broader environmental degradation. And the Confagricultura farm group said the repercussions of the spill will be felt in small tributary farm communities, particularly as water demands increase with the spring planting of rice.

“I would expect the market for electrics does not depend at all on the development of a [charging] network, given the way in which these vehicles are used,” said Tom Turrentine, director of the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Center at the University of California, Davis. Through his survey of 150 people leasing the BMW MiniE battery electric prototype last year, Turrentine discovered that its maximum range of 100 miles per charge was enough to satisfy their normal driving habits. Turrentine found that most MiniE drivers were able to drive between 80 and 100 miles per charge, which they found to be sufficient. “The vehicle meets their needs in this range,” he noted.Market research firm Frost & Sullivan also queried more than 2,000 drivers of all kinds of car nationwide and found that most feel the recharging time for an electric car's battery is acceptable. This satisfaction with the battery's range meant that drivers were able to charge conveniently at home, rather than dealing with the hassle of plugging in at work or in other public parking locations. The relative lack of these recharging locations could prove less of a deterrent to electric car acceptance than was expected, Turrentine said.

When Berlin, Germany, installed a public charging network, the chargers went largely unused by the city’s electric car drivers, he added. Still, electric drivers don't like the notion of getting stranded and sympathized with one another’s plight. MiniE drivers posted their locations on a Web site they shared, so if one of them found themselves far from home with a low battery, they could head to another MiniE driver’s home for some electrons to get home. The home-charging units provided with the cars can juice up a battery more quickly than just plugging into an available 120-volt outlet, getting the driver back on the road in less time. This self-organized grass-roots support network that sprung up through the use of social media is an example of how electric car test drivers have communicated with one another and with carmakers even without organized surveys like Turrentine’s. “Our customers will give us feedback anyway, whether we like it or not,” said Ulrich Kranz, head of BMW’s Project i. Even if drivers infrequently need public charging, knowing it is available provides considerable peace of mind to prospective EV buyers, according to Frost & Sullivan’s director of automotive and transportation research, Veerender Kaul.