Posted on 05/07/2007 8:15:30 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
DETROIT - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) on Monday faulted U.S. automakers for failing to do what foreign manufacturers have accomplished in producing fuel-efficient vehicles.
Uttering words not often spoken in Detroit, Obama said U.S. energy policy must change in order to help domestic automakers answer the rising global demand for efficient autos.
"For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient technology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," the Illinois senator told business and political leaders.
Obama said his plan encourages domestic automakers to make fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles by giving them health care assistance for retirees. Federal financial assistance would cover 10 percent — up to $7 billion — of automakers' annual legacy health care costs through 2017, under Obama's plan, which would require automakers to invest at least half of their health care savings into technology to produce fuel-efficient cars.
As a second choice, Obama's plan would provide $3 billion to automakers over 10 years to help retool plants to make fuel-efficient cars and trucks.
It's all part of the U.S. auto industry taking necessary steps to help its own turnaround, Obama said.
"Here in Detroit, three giants of American industry are hemorrhaging jobs and profits as foreign competitors answer the rising global demand for fuel-efficient cars," he said.
"The need to drastically change our energy policy is no longer a debatable proposition. It is not a question of whether, but how; not a question of if, but when. For the sake of our security, our economy, our jobs and our planet, the age of oil must end in our time."
A Senate committee on Tuesday is expected to consider a proposal to raise fuel efficiency requirements for automakers. The measure, which would require a fleetwide average of 35 miles per gallon for cars and trucks by 2020, comes amid calls to push the industry to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles to respond to global warming and America's growing reliance on foreign oil.
Obama said focusing on the cars Americans drive and fuels used would save 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.
"It starts with our cars, because if we truly hope to end the tyranny of oil, the nation must once again turn to Detroit for another great transformation," Obama said at the sold-out Detroit Economic Club meeting.
To start, his plan calls for raising American fuel economy standards by 4 percent each year, adding about one mile per gallon. Passenger cars currently must meet a fleetwide average of 27.5 miles per gallon, while the standard for SUVs, pickups and vans is 22.2 mpg.
The Bush administration has set a similar goal of increasing the standards by 4 percent each year.
"Our goal is not to destroy the industry, but to help bring it into the 21st century," Obama said. "So, if the auto industry is prepared to step up to its responsibilities, we should be prepared to help."
Separately, a portion of Obama's energy plan that would establish a national low-carbon fuel standard drew praise from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has proposed a similar regulation in his state.
"Climate protection, energy security and economic well-being are not partisan issues, and I hope members of Congress on both sides of the aisle will support and help pass this important legislation," the California governor said in a statement.
Monday's visit was Obama's first campaign trip to Detroit. He was introduced by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
You just saved me a post. Thank you :)
Talking about mileage at all is losing sight of the original issue. Mileage doesn’t matter, gallons matter. The global oil market neither knows or cares how far you drive with that gallon of gas once you’ve bought it.
Politicians are a bunch of scheming liars, but by and large they aren’t idiots. They understand this perfectly well.
They also understand that telling people who decided to live 50 miles away from their job in the city and sit in a bumper to bumper commute for four hours a day that they are going to have to pay the consequences of their lifestyle choices is a big vote loser.
Telling them instead that the fault in their dumb decision is not their own but lies in the misdeeds of “big oil” and “big auto”, (or from our side of the aisle, “environmentalists” and “the EPA”) and that continuing their lifestyle is one law change away is a vote getter.
This is called moving your mouth without saying anything. Anybody who thinks clinocchio is the only slick eel on the field hasn’t been looking carefully at this guy. Moving his mouth without saying anything is most of what he does. He is naive enough to believe he can get by with this act, but he is about to learn he is playing on slick willie’s field.
The domestic industry is destroying itself just fine. No point in asking for the government’s help in doing it.
Obama this week flew to Detroit to deliver his message that the U.S. auto industry is the villain for "investing in bigger and faster cars while foreign competitors invested in more fuel-efficient technology."
The domestics certainly haven't flooded showrooms with gas/electric hybrids like the Japanese. But in fairness, the newest Japanese assembly plant in the U.S. produces 14-m.p.g. Toyota Tundra pickups, not Prius hybrids rated at 60 m.p.g.
"While our fuel standards haven't moved from 27.5 miles per gallon in two decades, both China and Japan have surpassed us, with Japanese cars now getting an average of 45 miles to the gallon," Obama said.
"I'm not sure where he got that figure," Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said. "No carmaker gets 45 m.p.g. Ours is closer to 30 m.p.g."
If elected president, perhaps Obama's first appointment should be a fact-checker.
So Obama does not have any magical solutions?
Obama Condemns Big and Fast Gas Guzzlers, But Drives Hemi V8 Sedan
NewsBusters.org | Lynn Davidson
Posted on 05/12/2007 7:28:55 PM EDT by SandRat
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1832638/posts
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