Auto industry bailout and greener autos?

I agree...they need to structure the bailout on the condition of reaching certain design goals for new auto's.

Maybe it will bring to light that Europe right now has many fine cars getting 50-60MPG made by Ford, VW, Puegot, Mercedez, Toyota, and GM. They are turbo diesels and they have been making them for years. One primary reason we can't have them is because California and 2-3 states in the NE will not allow them. Way to go "Environmentalists". You screwed the american people again. Just like they killed our Nuclear program and forced us to produce more CO2, they are keeping us from good cars using half the fuel which saves oil, but also produces less CO2. "Environmentalists" are terrorists that can't do basic math and physics.

These very good cars could be being produced in the US today if not for "Environmentalists" and stupid politicians.

The lack of diesel cars in the US market was due to the high sulfur, low quality diesel fuel available in North America as well as the nitrous oxide emissions due to the high compression ratios. However, the Germans have come up with a catalytic converter that removes 100% of sulfur emissions from the exhaust opening up the US market. The US big three responded by a) buying, merging or arranging to be bought by European and Asian competitors and b) lobbying the government to legislate low sulfur diesel fuel. Those Ford, GM, Chrysler turbo diesels sold abroad are far more likely to be Mitsubishi or Volkswagon underneath the hood. Bringing the requirement for the diesel fuel to be low sulfur allowed the relatively inferior technology of the US big three to compete toe to toe in the US market for diesel cars. This is why diesel fuel practically doubled in price overnight as refineries try to recoup the costs of the extra processing. Europe always had a supply of naturally low sulfur diesel hence the widespread use of diesel cars.

Diesel fuel takes more oil to refine than gasoline and due to the higher energy density have more carbon than gasoline. A diesel car may get more miles to the gallon but that's because it has more carbon to carbon and carbon to hydrogen bonds to store the energy in hence produces more CO2 by volume as well as providing more energy. The amount of energy per atom of carbon is the same between both fuels.

With nitrous oxides, they lobbied the government on the basis that it's photo-chemical smog that is the problem to regulate ozone instead of nitrous oxides despite ozone not being a product of combustion but rather of sunlight and lightning. This is based on the requirement for ozone as a catalyst for nitrous oxides to form smog. This change in EPA regulation from regulating nitrous oxides to regulating ozone which isn't produced by cars is what allowed the high compression hemi's and the 300HP muscle cars to re-appear on the scene. Prior to this change in regulation, a sports car had about 100 to 150 HP and the small sedans had 60 HP engines with up to 72 mpg (1982 Nissan Sentra).

The US automakers have manipulated the government instead of developing new technologies and designs, even the SUV was simply because utility vehicles were exempt from the passenger vehicle safety crash testing and emissions regulations of the time. If they had spent as much time making better products as they did trying to subvert the legislation that environmentalists lobbied for then they may still have been viable.

Effectively, the big three have been subsidized all along simply because their focus had been on lobbying the governments for various liberties. However, this focus on politics rather then technology is not their Achilles heels, it's the Union negotiations of the past which have saddled the companies with paying pension benefits for all former employees. Salaries of current employees are not really an issue (they start at $20 per hour and work up to $70 per hour) but rather the increasing number of retirees still effectively on the bankroll that is the problem. Breaking those contractual obligations now would leave many geriatrics without an income and medical insurance. The negotiators who signed away future funds for a quick settlement in the then present have already been paid their bonuses and are long gone. It's a tough situation but a lot of people will be hurt if the pension plan obligations are done away with.

It's ridiculous to say that environmentalists are to blame, had the original EPA nitrous oxide limits been still in place, we would be driving 70 mpg cars right now albeit under powered 70 mpg cars but 70 mpg cars nonetheless. It's business people holding their own personal interests over the long term viability of the company that's to blame. When management is motivated by salary and bonuses only and not by long term stakes then it's no wonder they would sell out the future for their Christmas bonus.

It's a matter of what's important, poetic justice for the automobile industry or the livelihoods of all those retirees? Who's going to pull the rug out from under grandpa and grandma?

Union contracts that impose astronomical health and pension costs, make innovation harder, reduce production flexibility, and fail to ensure quality. American workers can produce quality cars and do so at numerous foreign owned plants. Most of those plants, however, are not organized. A Democrat-sponsored bailout is certain to preserve the current union contract. Union auto workers earn $70-$75 per hour!

GM and Ford should be allowed to go through bankrupt reorganizations. Yes, there will be huge transaction costs. Yes, some of those costs will be borne by the taxpayers. The bankruptcy court’s ability to remake contracts, however, will be critical. GM and Ford need to tear up their contracts with the unions, its retirees, and its dealers. Bankruptcy is the easiest way of doing so

The government should let the auto industries fail. It's their own fault for making big gas hogging low quality vehicles.

Honda, Toyota and Nissan aren't failing. They make good mid sized cars.

I completely agree with Bob F. Add to that the fact that you can't help a company, worker, or country by forcing/paying it to produce something the consumer won't buy.