Senator Levin in favor of a bolder clean vehicle mandate to replace CAFE

Filed under: Hybrid, Government/Legal, Electric, Diesel

Michigan Senator Carl Levin has been called the auto industry's best friend by detractors who say he's worked hard to obtain that title by defending the status quo. At the 2010 Business of Plugging In conference in downtown Detroit today, though, he made some comments that might put a stop to such name-calling. Levin said he wants to end what he sees as the small, incremental approach to cleaner vehicles the U.S. government is using today in favor of a huge and comprehensive program. "Our goal should be nothing less than making electric vehicles affordable and attractive to every American family," he said.

Levin talked about seriously overhauling how the U.S. government promotes cleaner vehicles. He said there are three policy drivers pushing us in this direction today: climate change (which he said "is real, it is urgent and we either deal with it now or our children and grandchildren will have to deal with it later when the remedies will be much more difficult, much more expensive and much less effective."), national security (i.e., oil independence) and the desire for a thriving manufacturing sector (i.e., jobs).

What has held the U.S. back from dealing with these issues in a coordinated way? Levin cited a fear of government support of manufacturing because that was considered industrial policy, what he termed "the kiss of death":

While our government refused to partner actively with American manufacturers, our competitors were establishing partnerships and making investments to position their manufacturers for the future. The second impediment was the ability of oil-exporting nations to play like a yo-yo.

America made progress on fuel efficiency gains in the 1970s, Levin said, but OPEC knew how to set us back:

Oil ministers of those nations made it clear they would keep the price of oil at a low enough level so that alternative energy sources would not make economic sense and that distracted us from the fact that ending out dependence on imported oil in our long-term economic interest, beyond the need for environmental and security reasons.

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Senator Levin in favor of a bolder clean vehicle mandate to replace CAFE originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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