I wrote this as a diary on other blogsites and found people weren’t as down on our car companies as thought. Since this blog does involve the environment I thought I would post it here also. Replies I’ve received from the west coast that buy foreign were a little surprised. One wanted to know about the new Ford Fusion hybrid. And many people including a congressman that I read about also find it curious that all three automakers ignored foreign competition. Here’s the blog:
We all had a hand in the recent demise of the American auto industry. Consumers ate up big gas guzzling SUV’s, trucks, and 300 hp engines in cars like my 9 year old Cadillac. Like most consumers, I figured if the Big 3 produces them, they are all right to buy; after all, the car companies have the inside track, and an eye up on the competition. We trusted their judgment and we were willing to buy.
American automakers sold us big gas guzzling cars, yet at the end of the Clinton administration, the Big 3 produced prototypes of energy efficient and hybrid vehicles for the future. When Bush/Cheney was elected all was abandoned. The Big Three were obviously assured by an overtly oil connected administration that the crude would keep flowing. The Big 3 trusted Bush/Cheney.
It is the trickle down of trust. Even though the source of this trust lies in an administration that is Wall St. friendly, (obviously), and anti-union, (prefers dictatorial management), even though the rest of the industrialized free nations are highly unionized and benefit from national health care systems. Hmm? Meanwhile, the Big 3 blindly and stupidly followed the lead of this anti-environmental administration, and totally ignored the competition that continued making hybrids. Odd. The assurances must have been great enough to go against basic business sense.
And what about the environment? The Bush administration appointed Michael Leavitt as EPA administrator in 2000. As new reports about global warming began to surface, they were either squelched or altered by the EPA. ENS reported: “The White House reversed course and rejected actions to control global warming pollution.” It is one of the worst deceptions the Bush/Cheney regime perpetrated on the American public, to cause doubt about global warming for the sake of the billionaire oil industry relishing the use of gas eating American cars by a trusting America and its auto industry.
As for Michael Leavitt, he left the EPA to head up Health and Human Services. Health and Human Services under his rule turned around and issued an e-mail to some 67,000 govt. employees urging them to buy hybrid cars, when U.S. automakers had none to offer. Of course the e-mail was a mistake, so sorry. What? As in a trial, the jury heard the stricken comment. Buy hybrid, buy foreign.
Within a span of a few years Michael Leavitt at the Bush/Cheney bidding was both anti-environmental, then suddenly green conscious. Bush/Cheney was purchasing more and more foreign oil. The beginning of 2007, before the economy took a dive, the Big 3 raced to Washington when oil prices rose to record highs. The Big 3 recognized the trouble ahead. They were snubbed by the same administration that obviously assured them early on. The oil was flowing but at outrageous prices, and now Bush/Cheney washed their hands of the auto industry. Not their problem. The Big 3 knew they had been duped. The environment was skillfully used as a means to an end.
The Big 3 scrambled back to Detroit to produce environmentally friendly cars. Ford is unveiling a hybrid Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan that goes up to 47 mph on electric power before switching to gas. The Prius tops out at 30-35 mph. Quite an achievement for Ford in a short time. GM is in the middle of producing a plug-in car. And Chrysler helped produce hydrogen-powered buses for Iceland in 2003. So they have the know how.
But there are new problems out of the auto industry’s control. The beloved Wall St. darlings of the Bush/Cheney era fumbled badly. Instead of just breaking unions, at least two of the Big 3 are on the precipice of extinction now. The final sword is bailing out Wall St. with $700 billion, and corps. like AIG twice, but stalling on the car companies for $25 billion citing that it will just be a cup of water on the fire.
If GM sold all 8 of its jets @ $35 million each, the total $280 million would by the same rationale be a thimble on the fire. If 20 execs conceded $5 million each in any perks or salary increases the resulting $100 million would be half a thimble on the fire. But there is no real fire. The auto industries have advanced greatly toward producing hybrid cars of the future in a very short time after realizing it was sheer stupidity trusting an administration that lead us into a war with Iraq. We’ve been mislead by the Bush/Cheney administration many times over and the one source that has profited greatly is Big Oil.
I believe Big Oil should return the favor to the Big 3 and float them the money to stay on the final stretch of track toward cars that won’t need oil in the future. If Obama can appoint his adversaries, then the oil industry can boost the car companies to a greener future without them. The auto companies deserve a bailout. The oil industry can easily afford it. They were bedfellows before. It’s time for some alimony.
Over four hundred blogs and all of the research, I’ve learned that all things lead back to politics through policy, legislation, and regulation. The past 8 years saw the demise of many things we’ve only just begun to notice. To blame unions and U.S. autoworkers for any of the problems the auto industry is currently experiencing continues to play into the hands of the Bush/Cheney mindset that would like to render our entire country an “at will” entity where no U.S. citizen will have the job security most of our major competitors in the free world enjoy. Understand that unions are the last powerful voice any average citizen has against the likes of a Wall St., that will most certainly make sure nothing, absolutely nothing trickles down. In light of what has happened, we’d be fools to think otherwise.
Japanese unions: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE5D8163EF933A15754C0A964958260.
Germany’s unions: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3755519,00.html
Britain’s unions: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/rov-a
06.shtml
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