A Letter to Baucus and Tester: Tie the Auto Bailout to Environmental Goals

Here is a letter several conservation groups, including MCV, sent to Baucus and Tester last month asking that any auto bailout be tied to reduced dependence on petroleum and strict efficiency and emission standards.

November 19, 2008

Senator Max Baucus 511 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Jon Tester 204 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senators Baucus and Tester:

We write concerning the possible bailout of the US automobile industry. As you are well aware you will likely continue to confront this issue in this lame duck session or in the next Congress.

No one would suggest that the situation facing General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler - pillars of our nation's manufacturing base - is not extremely troubling. All Americans have a stake in the health of the American automobile industry. Indeed, just the human dimensions associated with the possible failure of these companies, which would throw at least a million people out of work, is enormous.

Accordingly, there are good reasons to act to try to keep these business enterprises afloat.

Conversely, there are good reasons for you to decline to provide additional taxpayers dollars to this industry. Our economic system is dynamic, rewarding innovation and calculated risk-taking, and producing both - and necessarily - winners and losers. The downward slide of the American automobile industry is a result of many factors and has been going on for some time. With our rural communities and long travel miles, Montanans have been beholden to an auto industry that has not kept pace with a changing world and has, in its pursuit of short-term profits, left us with vehicles that are not suited for the needs of the 21st century.

We do not need to take a position on whether or not you should save - or try to save - this industry to conclude that an economic assistance package, if provided, must come with several strings attached. In particular, public funds must be put to use to reduce our dependence on petroleum, with new vehicles meeting strict efficiency and emission standards. Our present approach to transportation and fueling our vehicles is not sustainable; it is devastating our economy, distorting our foreign policy, and imperiling our planet and our future.

In this regard we were extremely disappointed by yesterday's testimony by the heads of the big three automakers before the Senate Banking Committee. Addressing Senator Tester, the executives rejected increased fuel efficiency standards as part of a bailout package asserting that the CAFE standards in the Energy Independence and Security Act constituted the outside limits of technological feasibility. Of course, this argument - that there are no additional efficiency gains available - is the same argument that the automakers made for over three decades as they fought an increase in CAFE standards. The argument was unsound in the past and it is unsound now.

In sum, a bailout must, if it is to have any chance of succeeding, require the industry to produce vehiclesthat will benefit our nation by moving us away from fossil fuels. Enabling this industry that has shownlittle inclination to produce anything but gas guzzlers has never been right and it can no longer continue.A blank check is not what is deserved, nor is it sound fiscal policy. We ask you, if you are going to godown this road, to take this opportunity to begin to build a new, sustainable economy, help protectconsumers, and address climate change. Hard-working Americans and Montanans deserve nothing less.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Ben Brower,Energy Program Manager
AERO-Alternative Energy Resources Organization

Carolyn Duckworth President
Bear Creek Council

Jennifer Goldman Public Health and Toxics Director
Earthworks

Steve Hoffman Executive Director
Montana Audubon

Chuck Magraw Chair
Montana Caucus, Northwest Energy Coalition

Theresa Keaveny Executive Director
Montana Conservation Voters

Beth Kaeding Chair, Board of Directors
Northern Plains Resource Council

Jim Barrett Executive Director
Park County Environmental Council