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Dems blunt on Big Three’s prospects |
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By Elana Schor
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Posted: 06/07/07 06:44 PM [ET] |
Senate Democrats yesterday gave the chief executives of Detroit’s Big Three automakers a cordial but blunt take on congressional plans to reverse the U.S. auto industry’s economic tailspin.
During multiple meetings on both sides of the Capitol, the executives’ message to lawmakers was clear: Raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, a central plank of next week’s Senate energy bill, would devastate U.S. auto production.
Democrats, while welcoming of the automakers’ enthusiasm for biofuels and advanced fuel cell research, had little sympathy for the Big Three’s pleas against the first significant CAFE increase in 20 years.
“I love you guys,” Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) told the executives during a manufacturing summit hosted by Michigan’s Democratic senators and the caucus’s Steering Committee. “[But] for the better part of 20 years, we’ve seen a loss of market share, loss of jobs, and plants closed [in the auto industry]. For 20 years we’ve been patient.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) focused his skepticism on automaker outsourcing that has cost the U.S. millions of jobs. “Are we going to have a U.S. auto industry in 20 years, or are you going to be in China?” Sanders asked General Motors chief Rick Wagoner, Ford chief Alan Mulally and Chrysler chief Tom Lasorda.
“We don’t view it as a tradeoff,” Wagoner replied. “We want to be big in China too.”
The three CEOs arrived at the Capitol in hybrid vehicles made by their respective companies, joined by Ron Gettelfinger, president of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. Recognizing that even a lobbying blitz is unlikely to stave off a CAFE increase, the Big Three and UAW appeared open to a compromise that would allow greater flexibility in standards for individual vehicles, rather than a fleet-wide standard.
“I haven’t seen all the [compromise] details yet, but I hope that we can work together to make substantial progress,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who attended the summit, said in a statement.
Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Joseph Biden (D-Del.) were the only two presidential hopefuls making an appearance, though neither asked a public question of the CEOs. One Washington industry stalwart not present at the summit, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), nonetheless expressed hope for common ground with Democrats on energy.
“We’re really interested in hearing more of what they have to say and we look forward to being a part of this discussion going forward.” NAM spokesman J.P. Fielder said.
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