The Opinion Blog: MONDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

I don’t know if we should bale the Big Three out. I say this because people are going to continue to buy autos even if they close, and they will merely expand the other automakers in the United States to meet the demand for these new cars.

Therefore, the union members working for the Big Three, and the other manufactures the Big Three buy from, they will just shift to other automakers: Toyota for instance.

Moreover, both labor and management working for the Big Three automakers are way overpaid, and all of their salaries need to be diminished!

And the United Auto Workers Union doesn’t strike each of the Big Three to get a raise, they only strike one and then the UAW makes an identical agreement with the other two automakers.

Then, of course, the executive of the corporations give themselves another million $ as their raise, and did you wonder what causes inflation?

And guess who pays for all of this nonsense?

YOU and I do!!!

No bailout!!!

Dr. James E. Dunn

Posted by: Dr. James E. Dunn | December 01, 2008 at 09:04 AM

I heard that argument the other day on the radio, and while I agree with it, they did bring up some good points.

Sure, it's not like we're going to stop buying cars because an automaker is no more. So it'll help the other non-union non-Big 3 automakers like Honda and Toyota that started building cars here. Isn't there a Honda plant in Alabama (there's something down there)?

But the state of Michigan will suffer. It's not like those automakers that'll make out will move into those factories. They have established factories in other states. Alabama has something. Isn't there a BMW plant here in SC? Are they going to go to Michigan to work in one of those factories? They may, but chances are if they are to expand from the demise of one, they'll expand in their own region first.

So those union workers are still out of work.

I did here, I believe it was on Lou Dobbs' show, that an idea, and it could have just been the loudmouth's idea, is to give everybody a $5,000 check that can only go towards buying a new car of our choice. If we chose a foreign made car, then so be it. If we choose a Big 3 car, then good for them, they get $5,000 from the government via the taxpayer that actually wants a new car.

I kinda don't mind that idea, as it helps us to get a car a bit, and it helps the automaker since they'll get the money. And if we choose a non-Big 3 car, oh well to the Big 3.

Posted by: Nick | December 01, 2008 at 09:28 AM

Message to Washington: Don’t turn a good government program into a bailout
by Diarmuid OConnell
Vice President of Business Development (CEO Tesla Motors) http://www.teslamotors.com/blog2/?p=66

published Thursday, November 27th, 2008

When Congress passed the landmark Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) in December 2007, the media and Capitol Hill focused heavily on the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standard. Congress increased the standard from 27.5 mpg to 35 mpg by 2020, marking the first time the CAFE average had been raised since the 1970s.

Almost entirely lost in the subsequent discussion was the fact that Section 136 of EISA created a $25 billion fund known as the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVM). The ATVM specified that the Department of Energy (DOE) should provide loans, loan guarantees and grants to new and existing automakers and suppliers to encourage development and speed delivery of next-generation cars – vehicles that meet higher standards for fuel efficiency and stretch technology beyond the internal combustion engine. The program aimed to provide “grants and loans to eligible automobile makers and component suppliers for projects that re-equip, expand, and establish manufacturing facilities in the U.S. to produce light-duty vehicles and components that make meaningful improvements in fuel economy performance.”

The ATVM program became a reality when funds were appropriated in late September to get the program off of the ground. Tesla Motors immediately began developing an application, proposing two advanced technology vehicle projects to be funded by DOE loans. The first project is an Advanced Battery and Powertrain Manufacturing facility that would supply batteries and components for Tesla cars and, more importantly, for other automakers. The second project would help us to finance a manufacturing facility to make our second vehicle, a five-passenger sedan known as “Model S.” We submitted our application to the DOE Nov. 16 – three days after the program became official.

Meanwhile, the macroeconomic environment deteriorated, and Detroit automakers scrambled to find a solution to quickly replenish their rapidly depleting cash reserves. October sales for nearly all large automakers plunged to near-record levels, prompting executives to consider strategically questionable mergers and even bankruptcy – moves they claimed would cost millions of jobs.

Naturally, their sights turned on Washington, seeking bailout loans from the Treasury Departments via the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). But when the White House made it clear that the TARP was off limits to the automakers, some on Capitol Hill initiated an effort to divert the $25 billion ATVM monies into a general bailout of domestic automakers — an option that would not fund next-generation powertrain work but would instead give ailing businesses little more than a short lifeline. The pressure on Congress to pervert the intended purpose of the ATVM program will be intense when the CEOs return to Washington in the first week of December.

It would be an enormous mistake to refashion the ATVM into a bailout. The original spirit and intent of the program is critical for the nation’s economic security – and the importance of the program is even greater given the harrowing economic climate.

Earlier this month, as layoffs were mounting among the Detroit automakers, President-elect Barack Obama broadly outlined an economic recovery plan that could put 2.5 million Americans to work, many of them in “green collar” jobs, building wind turbines, installing solar panels and developing fuel-efficient cars. California is already showing that America needn’t buy into the specious argument that pits the environment vs. the economy: In October, the University of California, Berkeley, released data showing that the state’s energy-efficiency policies created nearly 1.5 million jobs from 1977 to 2007 and boosted salaries by $44.6 billion.

Since its founding in 2003, Tesla Motors has been directly addressing the pressing crises of energy security and climate change. The company is already producing the Roadster, an innovative precursor to other all-electric, zero-emission models in Tesla’s product pipeline — de facto evidence that electric vehicle technology is here today. Tesla Motors is applying for the DOE loans in the truest spirit and intent of the program, and the company does not endorse the diversion of the ATVM resources for a bailout of any kind.

Posted by: Root | December 01, 2008 at 10:06 AM

A substantial US-owned auto industry investment package will be passed next week, it's requirements haven't been completed (it's always like that, there must be some deadline that's barely met so they can celebrate and tell stories) but rest assured that lots of people are writing the details now, while we're writing our comments and suggestions here, which won't be considered or part of the final deal. Save your energy.

This deal's built, they just haven't painted it or written the manual. We'll see it next week when they pull the sheet off and set it to slowly spinning.

Congress will blink, the requested $25 billion will get thrown in with everything else that's been spitballed to the wall since mid-September and it'll all get figured out down the road. That would be true if they'd asked for $31 billion or $26.3 billion or $18 billion ... whatever, the auto deal's done.

This ain't PREACHING but we'll all have more impact and get more results if we stick to local issues, Lord knows we have our own gravy here that needs thinning.

The macro-issues aren't going to change; we'll continually experience substantial migration to the SE U.S. east of I-95 from mid-Virginia to St. Augustine, FL throughout this century. Regional airports, connector-roads, water-quality (and dependable sources), expanded tourism promotion, job creation, wi-fi, expanded schools, recreational opportunities, new/better approaches to zoning, public transportation and health care will affect us more than what happens in Michigan or Washington, DC.

The machinations in Columbia, Conway and Georgetown are more important than DC ... absorbing the current excesses and getting back to something closer to full-employment are more critical local issues. We do have crime problems, robbery is way up, property theft is way up and it'll go higher before it abates or starts to go down 'cause the 'impact' issues aren't being addressed.

We're over-regulating (i.e, no bikers) and shooting ourselves in the foot. Our elected officials should take a deep breath and recognize that having the power to do something doesn't mean they must do it ... MOST of the time having the wisdom NOT to act is more productive than proposing new regulations.

When the herd's relatively happy you don't see sheep dogs running around 'em in circles continously yapping just to hear themselves bark.

We could do a lot to get back on track by saying, woops ... we were aiming for nirvana but ending up screwing up. Hey, we're a vacation area, COME on down and enjoy your vacation! If you beat somebody up we'll arrest you. If you flash your fanny we're going to arrest you. If you skip out on your dinner tab we're going to arrest you ... but that's always been true.

Welcome golfers, families, newly-weds, travelers of all types, kids, graduates, old people, beach lovers, history-buffs, tycoons, mill workers, fishermen, people passing through AND bikers. Yankees and rednecks, military and milque-toasts. Eat some ribs, try the seafood, buy some golf stuff or cruise the boulevard. Whatever ... WELCOME!

If we do that our local banks won't need federal bailout money, we've forgotten what made this eclectic place so attractive to begin with.

Take a lesson from Murrells Inlet (fittingly, half-way between Myrtle Beach and Georgetown) ... let the mansions and house trailers share the same block, tie up the motoryachts and dingys to the same dock, share a meal, a beer, a laugh and a memory. It works great when nobody's preaching.

Amen.

Posted by: Tom Davis | December 01, 2008 at 10:37 AM