HomeLeading The News U.S. auto workers, allies charge GOP’s ‘Nissan bloc’ is driving energy bill talks
Leading The News
U.S. auto workers, allies charge GOP’s ‘Nissan bloc’ is driving energy bill talks
By Susan Crabtree
Posted: 10/30/07 07:25 PM [ET]
Three GOP senators are driving behind-the-scenes negotiations on higher fuel efficiency standards because their support could hand Democratic leaders the key to passing a contentious energy bill before the end of the year, according to union and auto industry lobbyists.
Unions and some auto industry lobbyists have dubbed Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Tennessee GOP Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker “the Nissan bloc” because Nissan has manufacturing plants in their states and the senators are backing the Japanese company’s positions in the complicated fight over imposing more stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards on automakers.
Critics of the Senate version of the energy bill, which would require each manufacturer’s vehicle fleet to average at least 35 miles per gallon by 2020, charge that the three are supporting tougher CAFE provisions because they would give Nissan a competitive advantage while potentially crippling an already ailing domestic auto industry.
The lobbyists grouse that certain provisions toughening CAFE standards in the Senate bill have nothing to do with increasing energy efficiency and were only included so that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Democratic leaders, who support higher CAFE standards for environmental reasons, could gain the support of the three Republicans they needed to reach the 60-vote cloture threshold to end debate in the Senate and move to a vote on the massive energy measure.
By supporting the changes Nissan wants, Democratic leaders also are shunting aside the views of the Michigan delegation, especially Sen. Carl Levin (D), who as chairman of the Armed Services Committee is one of the party’s leading voices of opposition on the war in Iraq, and House Energy and Commerce panel Chairman John Dingell (D), the auto industry’s longtime champion.
“I think Nissan is having a disproportionate impact [on the bill],” Levin said in a brief interview last week.
Lott acknowledged that he’s been involved in talks with Reid about CAFE, but would not say whether the two leaders are working together to proceed to final negotiations on the energy bill, which Democratic leaders in the Senate and House likely will conference informally to avoid protracted disagreements.
Lott opposed the full bill when it was on the Senate floor, but when asked why he has been involved in discussions about CAFE language, the veteran lawmaker didn’t skip a beat.
“I have Nissan in my state,” he said.
Alexander and Corker, however, take exception to being labeled part of the Nissan bloc, arguing that they support higher fuel standards because it’s good for the nation’s energy policy — not just Nissan. Both General Motors, which is part of an alliance of auto companies that oppose the Senate language, and Nissan North America, which is headquartered in Nashville, are major industry players in the state, and both have lobbied hard on the issue.
“We have equal interest in my state,” Corker said. “Lamar and I both voted for the bill because we thought it was good public policy.”
Alexander’s spokesman, Lee Pitts, said his boss has been a longtime advocate of raising fuel efficiency standards and an outspoken proponent of combating climate change. Alexander visited auto manufacturers throughout the state, including Nissan and Saturn, which is owned by General Motors, and came to his own conclusion on the bill, Pitts said.
Aides to Reid and Pelosi would not comment on whether Lott and Reid had struck a deal. Instead, they said the leaders are aware of the positions of the various committee chairmen involved and have pledged to engage those members as the negotiations progress.
Final bicameral negotiations on the energy bill have been stalled for months, but talks are continuing behind the scenes. Recently, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that the most contentious issues in the measure would be left to his party’s leaders to sort out instead of the Democratic committee chairmen who helped write the legislation, including Dingell.
Opponents highlight Nissan’s support for the elimination of a rule requiring that both an automaker’s domestic and imported fleet meet the 35 mile per gallon fuel efficiency standard. This single standard means there is less pressure on foreign carmakers to make fuel-efficient cars in the United States. This, in turn, allows them to build more trucks, which generally get fewer miles to the gallon but can be more profitable.
This is an outrage to domestic car companies and the United Auto Workers (UAW) because they believe it will lead to tens of thousands of lost U.S. jobs as auto companies move production overseas in order to meet the single CAFE standard.
They also say Nissan championed language eliminating a proposed requirement that up to 80 percent of new vehicles by 2015 be capable of burning alternative fuels such as 85 percent ethanol gasoline (E85). Detroit automakers already are on track to make half of their vehicles E85-capable by 2012, while Nissan and other foreign automakers have made fewer innovations in flex-fuel technology.
“Nissan, through Trent Lott, lobbied to get the distinction between domestic and foreign fleets lifted and the flex-fuel language taken out,” said Alan Reuther, legislative director for the UAW. “In exchange for those two things, Lott helped line up the Tennessee Republican votes.”
Mike House, a lobbyist for Hogan & Hartson, which is working on behalf of Nissan, said the issue cannot be boiled down to domestic versus Japanese companies. He noted that Japanese firms employ thousands of U.S. workers, while some U.S. companies in the Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers have production in other countries.
“Somebody should look at the number of manufacturing jobs the alliance [companies are] shipping down to Mexico,” he said.
Still, it appears UAW concerns about the measure’s impact on U.S. jobs are beginning to have an impact. In mid-October, 13 Senate Democrats who support the higher CAFE standard sent a letter to Reid arguing that fuel efficiency standards should not harm domestic production of small vehicles and that protections should be added to the bill. Those who signed the letter include: Byron Dorgan (N.D.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), as well as presidential contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Joseph Biden (Del.) and Chris Dodd (Conn.).
During his weekly press conference with reporters on Oct. 23, Reid reiterated his support for strong CAFE standards. “We need to change the fuel efficiency of cars — we haven’t done it in 20 years,” he said.
Reid spokesman Jim Manley said Reid is committed to the strongest CAFE standard possible in the final negotiations on the bill.
