Emanuel Urges Speeding Up Aid to Auto Industry

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

In his first televised interviews since being named the chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel on Sunday called for urgent action to lift the struggling auto industry and suggested Mr. Obama and President Bush might clash over a stimulus package.
In appearances on CBS and ABC news programs, Mr. Emanuel said the first priority for the incoming Obama administration was finding ways to lift the weakened economy, whose latest woes include a steep drop-off in retail sales and the loss of millions of jobs. The auto industry has been particularly hard hit, with Ford and General Motors pleading for government help after car sales plummeted 18 percent this quarter. General Motors, the country’s largest carmaker, reported a $4.2 billion third-quarter operating loss, said it may be on the brink of collapse.

Over the weekend, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, sent a letter to the Bush administration requesting that funds from the $700 billion bailout package — intended for Wall Street — be used to help carmakers as well. But the White House has signaled that it would oppose such a measure.

When asked on ABC’s “This Week” where Mr. Obama stood on the issue, Mr. Emanuel seemed to suggest that Mr. Obama would be open to tapping the rescue fund to help carmakers, calling the auto industry an “essential part of our industrial base.”

He added that Mr. Obama has asked his economic team to look at ways to involve the industry in shaping an energy policy that weans the country off foreign oil, seeking ways to use the $25 billion in loans that Congress passed in September to help make auto plants more capable of producing fuel-efficient cars. But industry officials asked last week for an additional $50 billion for other costs. When pressed on whether Mr. Obama would endorse using some of the $700 billion rescue package for that purpose, Mr. Emanuel would not say whether Mr. Obama specifically opposed or supported the idea....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/us/politics/10talksho...

[goddess40]

1. only with strings attached

actually steel cables like the ones that hold up the Golden Gate bridge.
-Limits on what top management can make, no bonuses.
-Limits on what shareholders can make.
-Plans to update plants to sell realistic 21st century cars
-Decent pay and benefits for employees.
-Can't leave the states they are currently in, can create new plants but must maintain current plants and employee numbers at those plants.
-Must adhere to these rules until all the money is repaid to the government.

[frog92969]

2. Definitely "realistic 21st century cars"

They keep making cars for Big Oil, but Big Oil isn't their customer.
Could be a large part of their problem.

And don't let them piss all the jobs out of country, that's a large part of OUR problem.

[TommyO]

3. Realistic 21st century cars are this:

Cars similar, if not identical, to those that Ford and GM are currently selling worldwide. These are smaller, more fuel-efficient, and frequently based on clean diesel engines. This, along with ramping up the production of hybrids (both parallel like the Prius, and serial like the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt) is the immediate future.

Long term, we need to move away from internal combustion completely, but that won't be realistic until we grow the technology so cars can have a reasonable range, say 400 to 700 miles on a single charge, and recharge times, if battery based, that are comparable to the amount of time it takes to fill up a tank with fuel.

[frog92969]

11. We keep waiting for this quick charge technology

But we could already have universal quick CHANGE batteries, charged with solar thermal in the South West. Exchanged like propane tanks at full service stations.

We don't need fossil fuel to get down the road, we just need to get Big Auto off of Big Oil's tit.


BTW Rahm Emanuel!?!?

[tclambert]

19. Yeah, quick charge is a problem.

One of my nephews is a genius engineer working on hybrids and he explained to me why he's skeptical of anyone's claims of quick charge technology. He said charging a battery pack is not just an electrical event, it's also a thermal event. There is waste energy in the form of heat involved. If you spread it out over an hour, you can keep the temperature down. If you condense it into a few minutes, you create much higher temperatures. Like temperatures that melt things or start fires. A fire with lithium batteries is not nice. DON'T SPRAY WATER ON IT! Lithium doesn't react to water quite as energetically as sodium, but it can get nasty.

"Exchanged like propane tanks." That is not a half bad idea. It might require standardization of battery packs, at least to some extent. The battery technology isn't that mature yet. But someday . . . yeah, I'll predict we do that someday.

[saigon68]

5. These scum bags will send jobs to Mexico

They will also continue executive bonuses
And the $$$$ will be gone`

[goddess40]

9. -can't create out of country jobs until debt is paid off

that needs to be added to the rest of the "strings" list. Let them create jobs in other states but not out of country.
Violations should mean that the government takes over until a new buyer can be found.

[saigon68]

23. Good Point

I doubt with that caveat GM would take the money

[goddess40]

29. Then they'd fold and we could find someone else to take over

like the employee's

[quidam56]

7. BiG Corporate and Banking BAILOUT - solution-

Give 'em the whole 1.4 Trillion,
Less the holiday's, spa treatments, less the golden parachutes, less the bonuses given to turn down a patient in need of a life threatning illness,less what people lost in their life long savings and stock losses, return that to the people and they can learn to live like the rest of us on what's left at the end. Big Oil making record profits should be divided in half over the past year or two and give to the American people who filled their bank accounts, filling their tanks !

END MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL!!! http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[acmavm]

10. EXACTLY. With strings attached.

Great list.

[ohio2007]

16. just like the $700 billion strings already rubber stamped by congress

the tax man will be shaking down the little people to save Michael Moores Dearborn friends

[Catshrink]

4. I'm not so sure...

They have made such crappy and irresponsible business decisions, mainly, not going for more hybrids and killing the electric car in favor of their big ass trucks and SUVs. Should we reward this?

If there is a bailout, there also needs to be some pretty serious conditions attached. Development of environmentally responsible cars, reducing the number of gas guzzlers, monitoring their ties to big oil, etc.

It just pisses me off to reward irresponsibility and greed. Why should canned/failed executive get mega-million dollar golden parachutes while many American wage earners can't afford to put food on their families?

[WriteDown]

33. Once again....sigh.....

The EV1 was rife with problems. Everything from transmission problems to incredibly expensive manufacturing costs. At the time, SUV's were selling like crazy in the American market and that is where the demand was so that is what they built. Toyota and Honda did the SAME exact thing, but they are not burdened by the high price of labor and legacy costs.

[galileoreloaded]

6. GM has a 60 billion dollar negative book value. The American car is done.

no amount of money makes this better, and nationalization, in this case, only leads to experiences like you have at the DMV.

The ones to support are the pensioners and the unemployed (soon to be) workers. Sad, but true.

[ohio2007]

17. two months cash on hand then..... they take the road less traveled

union and management being run out of town and into the unemployment line.

Why does Nancy/congress want to reward failure ?
The next time they fall, it will be worse.

[dysfunctional press]

27. i've never had a problem at the dmv...

so nationalization just might be the way to go.

[customerserviceguy]

30. I'm beginning to think this is the answer, too

And you could accomplish it by having the US Government buy up all their stock, which is selling at firesale prices. Once you get 51% ownership, you can fire all of the asshats that got the auto companies into this position.

Consolidate and merge, we really don't need three companies putting out identical crap.

[goforit]

8. Immanuel=Bush??? Come on!!! Let the American people decide!! Create NEW Company

BAILING out is a recipe for greater failure!!! Throw money to new companies!! Newer entrepeneurs!!!

Start over from scratch. Cars that are Newer, better, efficient, fuel efficient, and greener on emissions.

[theophilus]

12. As long as they make all future cars from carbon fiber and reduce

the price significantly to get these more gas efficient cars on the highways immediately.

[tclambert]

20. Carbon fiber is too expensive.

[theophilus]

22. If it were mass produced and the machinery retooled to do

it then the price would probably go down. Anyway 25 to 50 billion is a lot of dough to lend out. It might as well pay for something useful to us all.

[dysfunctional press]

13. why not use the issue of "national security" to force chevron to allow use of the patents it bought?

Whether or not Toyota wanted to continue production, it was unlikely to be able to do so, because the EV-95 battery was no longer available. Chevron had inherited control of the worldwide patent rights for the NiMH EV-95 battery when it merged with Texaco, which had purchased them from General Motors. Chevron's unit won a $30,000,000 settlement from Toyota and Panasonic, and the production line for the large NiMH batteries was closed down and dismantled. This case was settled in the ICC International Court of Arbitration, and not publicised due to a gag order placed on all parties involved.<1> Only smaller NiMH batteries, incapable of powering an electric vehicle or plugging in, are currently allowed by Chevron-Texaco.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4_EV

[ohio2007]

18. China doesn't respect patent laws. They would have the world beating a path to their door

if the technology was actually feasible.

[dysfunctional press]

26. it's already been proven to be more than feasible...

it's what powered gm's ev-1, and they still power lots of rav4-ev's still in use.

[PugNot]

14. "Change" was supposes to be no more Corporate Welfare

..among other things. Companies that cant make a profit deserve and should die. Thats the "Circle of Life" of Capitalism...

[ohio2007]

15. the change is being sucked out of your pocket and given to big buisness.

auto industry are expecting favors in return for delivering votes.

[tclambert]

21. US car companies are working the problems.

In a couple of years, you'll be much happier with their car lineups. They are, and have been, working on exactly the things everybody complains about. But it takes time to design, test, and ramp up production of new car lines. The executives failed to predict the dramatic changes in fuel costs that started 3 years ago (about the time of hurricane Katrina). They have not been sitting on their hands since then. The Chevy Volt prototype that earned such a positive reaction was unveiled January 7, 2007. It took time to build and it will take another 2 years before going into production (3rd quarter 2010).

Besides the Volt, they are working hard on retrofitting many existing automobile lines with hybrid drive trains. Some of those will be available sooner.

[Billy Burnett]

24. Our jobs just keep moving offshore - GM Opens $300 Million Russian Plant

Just where will this "bailout" money go?

GM Opens $300 Million Russian Plant to Boost Sales
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aUU...

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

31. They're building a plant in Russia to supply cars for the Russian market.

These aren't jobs that would exist in the United States anyway.

[Billy Burnett]

34. Because Russia has tariffs on US cars.

Free Trade™.

So, you don't think that American manufacturers should/could do exports?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

35. Tarrifs, shipping costs, etc. etc.

It's usually cheaper to build economy cars where they're going to be sold than to export them. GM doesn't build Opels for Europe in the US, and it doesn't build many cars in Europe for the US market, save for upmarket cars (Saab.)

[glinda]

25. Don't give them money unless they retrofit cars period.

There is little money to buy a new car no matter if it is energy efficient. I think the quickest cash flow would be retrofitting. The American Auto Industry still acts as if they are "owed" something but the fact is that they have been negligent in creating affordable and decent cars that are ecologically better as well as over-projecting profits. I say also put them to work dismantling cars for metals and other recyclable parts.

[Tektonik]

28. This is something that maybe should have happened 2 years ago

Detroit is about to sink and throwing money in now may not help one damned bit.

[BlueInPhilly]

32. Only if GM gets rid of Rick Wagoner

(and I'm posting this from a GM subsidiary-owned computer...)

All of this crap happened in his watch!