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My Driving America’s Future tour took me to Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. I visited the Statehouse and held a press conference to show my support for a resolution introduced by State Senate Minority Leader Teresa Fedor urging Congressional support of the Hill-Terry bill. The auto industry is critical to Ohio and a bipartisan majority of its congressional delegation support the Hill-Terry bill as the better alternative for our economy, the environment and jobs in communities throughout Ohio. Minority Leader Fedor and the other cosponsors of the resolution have demonstrated strong leadership and have given Ohio a more prominent voice on this critical fuel economy issue.

- Rodney E. Slater, Chairman

Last week’s auto workers rally in St. Louis, MO was an encouraging display of our hardworking and dedicated brothers and sisters who are fighting for their jobs by supporting the bipartisan Hill- Terry energy legislation, HR 2927.

The rally was a demonstration of labor and of leadership, with over 300 workers representing different American auto manufacturing plants and leaders on the local, state and national level.

The UAW recently predicted that if enacted, the harsh Senate legislation would cost 17,000 jobs. As a member of Driving America’s Future, I fully support legislation that reduces green house emissions and I am in favor of policy that will protect our planet, but we must create jobs in the process, not eliminate them. Passage of the Hill-Terry bill would allow the auto industry to further fund alternative fuel development and advanced technologies (American automakers currently invest $17 billion annually) and in the process create “green collar” jobs. These jobs would be needed to develop and produce cars that run on batteries, hydrogen and ethanol.

Industries, jobs and family incomes – particularly those of the 100,000 Latinos employed in the automobile industry – will be greatly affected by the decisions made this fall in Congress. Unrealistic CAFE standards are not the best way to solve our energy issues. Instead, such challenges require ways of redefining the situation and leaping ahead. One strategy should be to put more national focus on new automotive technologies and alternative fuels. This is what the devoted workers of America’s auto industry believe and that is why they came out to support HR 2729 in St. Louis.

- Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus, Executive Director, LCLAA

It was back to school for me on Wednesday, as the travels continue. I spent the day in the ever industrial Pittsburgh, PA with students from Duquesne University. My day began at a breakfast with the students and faculty of the Bayer School of Natural and Environmental Sciences and – School of Business, where we had a roundtable discussion about the different technologies scientists are developing and the alternative fuels we will be able to use in the future. The questions were insightful and the discussion was thought provoking. The event was so important to the community that local TV and radio stations showed up to get some coverage of the talk.

My next stop was at the University of Pittsburgh (where Eastern Michigan will walk off the football field victoriously on Saturday) where I had the opportunity to speak to a group of engineering students about CAFE legislation. I explained the legislation HR 6 that was passed by the Senate and how the Hill-Terry bill in the House offers a more balanced option that will drastically increase fuel economy standards without sacrificing jobs. We talked about the design of the current vehicles and the designs of alternative fuel vehicles. The students were engaged understood the complex issues surrounding this important policy debate.

Thanks to all of the students and professors who came out to learn more about Driving America’s Future and to share ideas with me. Pittsburgh is an innovative city that deeply cares about a cleaner environment. Before my trip I ran across this article in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that highlights some of the ideas Pittsburghers are putting forth to clean up their community, note the parking incentives for alternative vehicles and allowing hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles to use HOV lanes when there is only one passenger. Thanks again to all that came out, I look forward to returning.

- Rodney E. Slater, Chairman

On Monday, August 27 I had the opportunity to tour the Allison Transmission plant in White Marsh, Maryland with John R. Buttermore, General Motors Powertrain Vice President of Global Manufacturing. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about a hybrid system that was developed in a joint effort by Chrysler, BMW and GM. This “Dual-Mode” hybrid system greatly increases fuel economy for both highway and city driving because it allows for fully electrical operation at low speeds while also providing electrical boost on the highway.

The technology is based on a hybrid system originally developed for city buses and will be available on GM’s full sized SUV’s and pick-up trucks starting in model year 2008. By focusing first on the heaviest vehicles that use the most fuel and then moving on to smaller and lighter vehicles, this hybrid technology can offset great amounts of greenhouse gas and petroleum fuel from the very beginning.

Research and development funds spent on this technology amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars, but this is money well spent. Since the hybrid system was developed domestically, American industry and workers were supported by this investment. The White Marsh plant employs more than 400 unionized employees that work on the cutting edge of automotive technology. The factory is incredibly well lit and kept immaculately clean, looking more like a computer chip manufacturer than a powetrain component facility. This transmission factory is representative of the new “green collar” manufacturing sector and it is through innovation like the dual mode hybrid that America can create new, good, high paying jobs.

I applaud the work done at the White Marsh facility and hope our government chooses to spur future developments in alternative powetrain systems. The research and development on technology like this is the key to lowered greenhouse gas emissions and greater energy independence.

- Rodney E. Slater, Chairman

There’s been a lot of talk on Capitol Hill about energy bills and fuel economy regulations. We thought it would be interesting to see what people outside of Congress think about these important issues.

A recent article in Bloomberg reported that General Motors may make up to 60,000 electric cars for the Chevy Volt’s US debut in the upcoming years. A number as large as 60,000 is four-times as many vehicles as the debut of the current best-selling hybrid the Prius. If sales are successful, it could be a major step for further development of advanced technologies and a big step made by domestic automakers.

Brett Smith, an alternative-fuel analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan believes that if GM can get 30,000- 60,000 Volts on the road in a year there will be a “huge leap in technology” consequently creating a very high consumer demand.

With high gas prices, more and more consumers are looking towards alternative fuel vehicles for their commutes to work and family road trips. With a successful launch of the Volt, the American auto companies could knock foreign car makers out of the run for efficient hybrid vehicles and revamp consumer image of American- made cars. The results could be electric.

- Rodney E. Slater, Chairman

On a post in August 16th’s OMB Watch Matt Madia talks about automakers “efforts” to stop fuel economy reform. His evidence that the Big Three are trying to stop fuel economy reform is a UAW rally that was held on August 15th in Chicago. What did Madia miss in his criticism? The rally was not held against fuel economy reform, but was held to support the fuel economy reform bill sponsored by Representatives Baron Hill and Lee Terry. The reason the unions are supporting this bill rather than the Senate’s bill is that the Hill-Terry bill will save 17,000 union jobs as opposed to the unreasonable bill proposed by the Senate.

More important than his factual inaccuracies is his underlying ideology. The post includes the following quote from Madia: “The Senate unwisely included a cost-benefit provision in its version of CAFE reform.”

How is this unwise? What is wrong with insuring that the annual increases in CAFE standards benefits will not outweigh the costs? Why do something that will have great negative consequences for jobs and the economy if there isn’t really any benefit?

Madia is an advocate for the “pick-a-number” approach to CAFE reform; he would like lawmakers to arbitrarily mandate a certain number of miles per gallon for all vehicles and then tell the automakers to “get it done.” Too bad if the technology does not exist to get vehicles to that CAFE number.

This approach ignores reality. Without taking into account costs and benefits every decision becomes an exercise in arbitrariness where special interests and political whim control legislative outcomes. Government like this should be feared, not supported.

-Rodney E. Slater, Chairman

Back in June the Senate passed a bill (HR 6) that called for higher CAFE standards for automobile makers to abide by. If enacted, this one piece of legislation would be the greatest regulatory burden EVER to be put on an industry. A price tag of $114 billion dollars. $85 billion of these dollars would have to come from American auto makers. If the industry is having to pick up such a hefty tab, it only makes sense that the consumer will have to pay more for each car, an estimated $2,000-$5,000 more. It is also important to note that the auto industry directly employs almost 400,000 workers in the U.S. and offers 13.3 million jobs nationwide indirectly through dealers and suppliers. If such aggressive legislation is put on the industry, costs will go up and jobs will be lost.

Driving America’s Future has a solution. We are in favor of greater mileage standards, cleaner fuels and reduced emissions and we think the best results will be achieved through setting balanced, yet achievable standards. DAF believes in innovation and the development of alternative fuels and vehicles, Congress should be putting its resources into technological advancements. Many people might not realize that the American auto industry already invests $17 billion every year to develop alternative vehicles without any prompting from Congress. Mandates from harsh Senate CAFE legislation will force the industry to take money out of technology development and put it towards retooling engines to meet very high standards.

Before the August recess, Representatives Baron Hill (D-IN) and Lee Terry (R-NE) introduced bipartisan legislation that would raise CAFE standards while making sure that economic and environmental concerns were met. It was a balanced approach that both Democrats and Republicans from all over the county could agree on (the bill had 150 cosponsors). It was not as severe as the bill put forth by Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) that the UAW recently accused as being “an ‘entirely gratuitous attack’ against the jobs of 17,000 autoworkers through an overlooked provision in his most recent fuel-economy proposal.”

Today it is more important than ever to work together to reach a bold, but balanced bipartisan agreement.

-Rodney E. Slater, Chairman