Oil, Cars, Jobs: Kerry risks votes in sensible push for fuel efficiency

[papau]

http://www.freep.com/voices/editorials/edems29_20040729.htm

Oil, Cars, Jobs

Kerry risks votes in sensible push for fuel efficiency
July 29, 2004

Everybody agrees that America is way too dependent for its own good on foreign oil, particularly from the volatile Middle East. The unending debate is whether to address this best by aggressively finding more oil under our own territory or by getting very serious about burning less.

In his speech tonight accepting the Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. John Kerry is reportedly ready to side in a major way with the conservation crowd. Depending on the details of his proposals, Kerry may be risking votes in Michigan, where the auto industry makes its home and employs hundreds of thousands of people.

Kerry has been endorsed by the United Auto Workers union, but there's no guarantee the rank and file will follow their leaders if they buy estimates from the Bush re-election campaign that Kerry's plan to raise fuel economy standards will cost Michigan 105,000 jobs. President George W. Bush is pushing an energy policy that combines expanded oil exploration with a $1.5-billion federal investment in the development of a new generation of vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Kerry is expected to propose $10 billion over the next decade in aid for auto companies that alter their plants or build new ones to make more efficient vehicles -- as long as the production remains in the United States. <snip>

[phantom power]

1. If these auto workers are paying any attention, they must realize

that their companies are going to get creamed if they don't start producing efficient vehicles quickly. Why in the hell doesn't Kerry just point out that obvious, if unpalatable, fact of life.

[DinahMoeHum]

2. The fact that it's *'s campaign that is pushing this "loss of jobs

due to fuel efficiency" should speak for itself.

Everything else about *'s campaign has been proven to be a pack of lies. Why should this one be any different?

:kick:

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Now here is a great example of a scam of historic proportions. The only group who will ever benefit from this one are the businesses cleaver enough to get government funding for R&D contracts before the whole stupid mess is dropped.