Crossposted at
Soapblox/Chicago
From Detroit News Autos Insider:
WASHINGTON -- Relief from soaring health care costs in exchange for more fuel-efficient cars. That's what Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, is advocating as one of many new ideas being floated in Congress to improve the gas mileage of America's cars and trucks.
Noting the importance of keeping the American auto industry strong while also reducing oil use in the United States, Obama called for using government money to relieve Detroit automakers of some of their staggering health care obligations if they commit to improving fuel economy by 3 percent a year for 15 years.
"By picking up part of the tab for the health care costs of their retirees, we'd be lifting a huge burden off the auto industry so that they'll invest in the technology that will finally reduce America's dependence on foreign oil," Obama said in a speech earlier this month.
More below the fold.
Moderate, liberal, or maverick, I'm really starting to love Barack Obama! Below is a list of his new ideas:
- Health care relief in return for annual 3 percent fuel efficiency improvements for 15 years
- Combine fuel economy requirements with expanded drilling at offshore sites
- New incentives for automakers to produce alternative fuel vehicles, like ethanol and "plug-in" hybrids
Back when the dew was still on the Bush Administration, Vice President Dick Cheney sniffed that energy conservation was a "personal virtue." Spokeman Ari Fleischer, when asked if President Bush advocated conservation, said the answer was a "big N-O." But in the wake of higher oil prices and the disruptions of the Gulf hurricanes, the paradigm has shifted, and President Bush has discovered energy conservation this week. Could he have been reading the polls? The Detroit News article goes on to state:
Backers of higher fuel economy point to polls like the one released last week by 40mpg.org, an offshoot of the Massachusetts-based Civil Society Institute.
In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said the federal government wasn't doing enough about high energy prices and U.S. dependence on foreign energy. On fuel economy, 73 percent said it was "much more" or "somewhat more" important for the government to require higher fuel-efficiency standards for new cars. On both questions, the support was strong across party lines.
Whether or not something comes of Obama's health care -for-mileage proposal, the man is staring at the Big Three--a disastrous nexus of economic hardships--calling attention to an emergent situation, and coming up with plausible ideas. He deserves progressive support.