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SK/P08. NOW IS THE TIME FOR A FEDERAL MANDATE



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SK/P08. NOW IS THE TIME FOR A FEDERAL MANDATE
1. AUTO INDUSTRY HAS MADE TERRIBLE DECISIONS
SK/P08.01) Matt Kibbe [President, FreedomWorks Foundation], U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 25, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Ten years ago, the Big Three posted a combined profit of over $16 billion. During the good times, management failed to invest this profit in a diversified product pipeline, but rather assumed that Americans would never stop buying high-profit SUVs and trucks. Now that market conditions have changed, the Big Three's business plan is to call on Congress to bail them out from reality. High labor costs and inflexible work rules, staggering legacy costs, an unwieldy dealer network, and a failure to overcome negative consumer sentiments have combined to bring Detroit's automakers to their knees. To put it bluntly, the Big Three remain weighed down by unmanageable legacy costs resulting from unrealistic union contracts made decades ago, leaving the car manufacturers no flexibility to respond to market changes.
2. INDUSTRY WOES MAKE NOW THE PERFECT TIME FOR A MANDATE
SK/P08.02) Bonnie Erbe, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 26, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Congress should not go easy on GM if it does approve a bailout, but Congress has shown no sign of going easy on the auto giant. The idea of setting auto executives scurrying to produce a business plan is nothing short of brilliant. I've got suggestions for what such a plan should include. But first and foremost, it should be focused on one word and one word alone: green. No more SUVs and gas guzzlers. Even in the truck division, GM could make its heavy-duty vehicles much more fuel efficient and price them so that they could only be purchased by commercial ventures. Private citizens who want to drive guzzlers should be priced out of the market and should instead be forced into low-mileage cars. GM got into this mess because instead of leading the consumer market in the right (read that: green) direction, it catered to America's sick addiction to gas guzzlers. Now's the time to lead, not cave in.
SK/P08.03) Jamie LaReau, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, November 17, 2008, p. 34, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Let's assume, for the moment, that Congress gives GM the $12 billion it needs to survive next year. That bailout would be part of a larger $25 billion bailout of the Detroit 3 that Congress will debate this week a debate that will be contentious. Any bailout will come with strings attached. Democrats will demand limits on executive compensation and partial government ownership. Republicans might seek further cuts in hourly wages. And environmentalists may demand more fuel-efficient vehicles.

3. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT MUST SUPPORT FUEL ALTERNATIVES
SK/P08.04) AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, February 4, 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In his final State of the Union address, President Bush called for more federal research into advanced batteries and renewable fuels to power vehicles of the future. But what's really needed is the equivalent of the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb in the 1940s or the technology race that put a man on the moon in the 1960s.
4. AUTOMOBILE BANKRUPTCY WOULD NOT BE A NATIONAL DISASTER
SK/P08.05) Amanda Ruggeri, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 18, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The skeptics point out that bankruptcy isn't always a doomsday scenario. It can encourage a company to restructure, streamline, and ultimately become more competitive.
SK/P08.06) Matt Kibbe [President, FreedomWorks Foundation], U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 25, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The U.S. steel industry faced a similar challenge. After decades of devastating headlines, the little-known story is that more steel was made in the United States in 2007 than in 1970, with one fifth the employees and one twelfth the man-hours per ton. The industry had to go through a painful process of bankruptcies, reorganization, and innovation, which serves as a model for the auto industry.
SK/P08.07) Matt Kibbe [President, FreedomWorks Foundation], U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 25, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Recession is like nature's wildfire: It cleans out the deadwood from the economy. The Big Three will survive only as auto companies, not employee benefit organizations propped up with taxpayer money. After a successful reorganization--not a bailout--the Big Three (or two, by that point) will be able to escape the past and emerge as competitive companies. Chapter 11 might be the last shot for the Big Three to credibly claim it is a new day in Detroit and to win back the faith of the consumer.

SK/P09. AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY CAN MEET MANDATE
1. AUTO INDUSTRY IS COMMITTED TO ALTERNATIVE FUELS
SK/P09.01) Jamie LaReau, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, November 17, 2008, p. 34, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Skeptical environmentalists and Republicans want to impose additional concessions on the Detroit 3. Wagoner [CEO, General Motors] acknowledges that Washington may ask GM to speed the introduction of fuel-efficient vehicles something he is willing to do. The Chevrolet Volt electric hybrid is on track to come to market in November 2010. And the Chevrolet Cruze a small sedan that could top 40 mpg is expected to debut in the summer of 2010.
SK/P09.02) Charles J. Murray, DESIGN NEWS, August 11, 2008, p. 59, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Ethanol, as it's better known, has emerged as a key part of the national energy debate. It's seen as a solution to a variety of ills, ranging from high gas prices to global warming to an unquenchable thirst for foreign oil. As such, farmers, politicians and auto executives are calling for accelerated production of it. "We believe that sustainable biofuels are the right way to go," says General Motors Spokesman Alan Adler. "That's why we've committed to making half of our U.S. production E85-capable by 2012."
SK/P09.03) Charles J. Murray, DESIGN NEWS, August 11, 2008, p. 59, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Indeed, GM says it already has 3 million E85 vehicles (capable of burning a blend of 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasoline) on the road today and by 2012 it plans to be cranking out 2 million of them a year. Similarly, Ford Motor Co. has pledged that it, too, will make half its production vehicles capable of running on alternative fuels by 2012 and virtually every other global automaker has similar plans for a stable of flex fuel vehicles.
2. AUTO INDUSTRY IS MAKING CUTS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
SK/P09.04) AUTO BUSINESS NEWS, November 26, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. General Motors Corporation (GM) (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, is creating a 'Plan B' in case the Detroit bailout fails. The company is implementing more cost-cutting measures in order to survive in the current economic situation. The automaker has sold off part of its stake in Suzuki, announced several job cuts, delayed new product introductions, and cut back production in order to protect itself from Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
3. PASSENGER VEHICLES & LIGHT TRUCKS DESERVE EQUAL MANDATE
SK/P09.05) AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, November 19, 2007, p. 3, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In its ruling, the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declared invalid the ways the federal government distinguishes between cars and light trucks for fuel economy purposes. A Senate-approved bill would set a single standard of 35 mpg for cars and trucks by 2020. It would end separate, lower requirements for pickups, vans and SUVs that have existed for three decades.

SK/P09.06) AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, November 19, 2007, p. 3, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The appeals court ruling should encourage Congress to "eliminate the false distinction between cars and trucks,” said David Friedman, clean vehicles research director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an environmental group.



SK/P10. 2040 IS A REASONABLE DEADLINE
1. SOME HAVE PROPOSED 2020 AS A REASONABLE DEADLINE
SK/P10.01) Stephen Spruiell, NATIONAL REVIEW, October 20, 2008, p. 26, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The gang's ["Gang of 10" Senators—five Republicans and five Democrats] proposal also included sweeteners for proponents of plain old corn-based ethanol, such as John Thune. It had loan guarantees for the construction of new pipelines capable of transporting E85, a fuel blend composed of 85 percent ethanol. (Ethanol cannot travel through ordinary pipes, because it corrodes them and absorbs water and other impurities.) It would have expanded tax credits for E85- powered automobiles and gas stations that sell E85. It proposed an extraordinary requirement that 100 percent of automobiles manufactured for use in the United States be capable of running on some form of alternative (non-gasoline) fuel by 2020.
2. INTERIM GOALS CAN BE MET BY 2020 OR SOONER
SK/P10.02) Bonnie Erbe, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, November 26, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Dan Beuke of BusinessWeek writes “End of discussion about higher mileage rules. For years, honest efforts to boost fuel efficiency were snuffed out in Washington by Detroit and its fellow travelers in Congress. Enough. I say we build right into bailout legislation a 40-mpg average for cars by 2020. That's up from 27.5 today, and a big step up from the 35 mpg goal that Detroit is supposed to achieve. I don't care how they get there: Build cars that burn corn cobs--or For Sale signs, for that matter. Just get there.”
SK/P10.03) Alec Rasizade [Historical Research Center], CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, Autumn 2008, p. 273, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The US Congress has a goal of replacing 15 per cent of gasoline use with alternative fuels by 2017.
3. 2040 ALLOWS ENOUGH TIME FOR PHASE-IN OF ALTERNATIVES
SK/P10.04) Raymond J. Learsy [energy analyst], PIPELINE & GAS JOURNAL, May 2007, p. 120, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. By 2040 there will be: 1. Government mandated limits on the consumption of fossil fuels, most especially gasoline and petroleum based fuels. 2. There will be a massive shift to flex fuel cars, hybrid cars and electric cars on America's roads in lieu of gasoline powered cars.

SK/P10.05) Eric Martinot [Worldwatch Institute], ENVIRONMENT, July-August 2006, p. 26, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. With concerted effort, renewables could realistically comprise more than half of global primary energy by 2040 (with the rest perhaps coming mostly from natural gas and coal-to-liquids). This view includes much greater use of electricity for transport, likely through advances in battery storage technology and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles; widespread solar heating; a much greater share of power generation via distributed renewables with local energy storage, akin to today's distributed internet; and finally, perhaps a "wildcard" technology making great strides, such as solar thermal power generation or cellulose-to-ethanol.



SK/C01. WORLD OIL SUPPLIES ARE PLENTIFUL
1. THE WORLD’S OIL SUPPLY WILL LAST WELL BEYOND 2040
SK/C01.01) Richard J. Green [NASA & National Science Foundation] & Wil Lepkowski, AMERICA, March 31, 2008, p. 9, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The world has an assured supply of petroleum for 80 to 100 years.
SK/C01.02) Peter Katel, CQ RESEARCHER, January 4, 2008, pp. 4-5. Some experts say such recent discoveries suggest that new exploration and production technology will supply the world with oil into the indefinite future. "What's really happening is the opening up of a whole new horizon in the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and it looks like the upside is very significant," said Yergin [Cambridge Energy Research Associates], a critic of peak oil theory.
SK/C01.03) Craig S. Marxsen [Associate Professor of Economics, U. of Nebraska-Kearney], INDEPENDENT REVIEW, Spring 2008, p. 537, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. A great deal of fossil-fuel material remains buried in accessible places. In the U.S. Department of Energy's International Energy Outlook 2006, world energy use is projected to rise from 421 quadrillion Btus, or "quads," in 2003 to 722 quads in 2030 (2006b, 1). Paul Holtberg, director of the Demand and Integration Division of the U. S. Department of Energy, and Robert Hirsch, a senior energy program advisor at Science Applications International Corporation, estimate that 13,400 quads of conventional crude oil and 14,000 quads of conventional natural gas remain exploitable. At least another 15,000 quads are available from unconventional sources of crude oil, such as tar sands and oil shale. In the lower forty-eight states of the United States, geopressured brine and gas hydrates may offer as much as 335,000 quads, according to Holtberg and Hirsch (2003).
2. ECONOMIC RECESSION IS REDUCING ENERGY DEMAND
SK/C01.04) Marilyn Radler & Laura Bell, THE OIL AND GAS JOURNAL, January 21, 2008, p. 24, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Worldwide oil demand growth will slow down to 1.0% in 2008, owing to a weakening global economy. Oil demand in the US will decline as the economy slows down, but demand for natural gas will increase modestly.
SK/C01.05) James Pethokoukis, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, October 10, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom finds the good news in the coming global recession: In fact the only upside of all this is that the massive slow-down in economic growth will rapidly cut the growth rates of CO2 emissions. Pollution is tightly linked to the level of economic activity, so that a few years of negative growth would lead to reductions in pollution levels not seen since the 1970s. It seems ironic that the greed of Wall Street may have inadvertently achieved what millions of well intentioned scientists, activists and politicians have failed to achieve--a slowdown in global warming.

3. HIGH OIL PRICES HAVE REDUCED DEMAND
SK/C01.06) Peter Coy & David Kiley, BUSINESS WEEK, June 9, 2008, p. 22, Online, GAGE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Gradually, though, the U.S. economy shows signs of doing what the textbooks predict it will, namely adjusting to higher oil prices. Airlines are starting to cut routes and raise fares, which is likely to reduce fuel use by simply discouraging air travel. With diesel even pricier than gasoline, some truckers are parking their rigs.
4. FALLING GASOLINE PRICES HAVEN’T HALTED THE TREND
SK/C01.07) Mark Williams, THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE, November 21, 2008, p. 3, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Custom Newspapers. The average price for gasoline is on pace to fall below $2 nationally by week's end. The decline comes as motorists continue to drive less. The Federal Highway Administration reported Wednesday that Americans drove 10.7 billion fewer miles in September than a year ago, the 11th straight monthly decline. Americans have driven 90 billion fewer miles over those 11 months than they did the year before.
5. OIL PRICES WILL RISE AGAIN
SK/C01.08) Jad Mouawad, INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, November 8, 2008, p. 17, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Custom Newspapers. The global economic slump that has curbed energy demand and pushed oil prices down in recent months may provide only a short-lived respite for consumers, according to the world's top energy forecaster. The International Energy Agency, which advises industrialized nations on energy policy, warned Thursday that the supply shortfalls that pushed oil prices into triple digits this year are far from resolved and could lead to a new period of high prices. Oil has plummeted from its summer peak in recent weeks as the financial and economic slowdown has reduced consumption. But many analysts believe oil could bounce back quickly, once economic growth resumes.
SK/C01.09) Dave O’Reilly [Chief Exectuive, Chevron], BUSINESS WEEK, November 24, 2008, p. 23, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Clearly, we're in a soft spot right now. But the thing to keep in mind is that oil at $50 or $60 a barrel is still quite high relative to where prices have been historically. They're back where they were around the beginning of 2007. And only in 2008 have oil prices really exceeded $70 a barrel for the year on average. So I still view them as healthy. And I'm surprised how healthy they are given the weakness in the economy in general.

SK/C02. OIL IMPORTS DON’T JEOPARDIZE U.S. SECURITY
1. MOST U.S. OIL IMPORTS COME FROM CANADA & MEXICO
SK/C02.01) Steven Hayward [American Enterprise Institute], THE AMERICAN, May-June 2007, p. 90, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Much of the public, for instance, believes we get most of our oil from Saudi Arabia and other politically troubled nations. In fact, in 2005, the most recent year for which the Department of Energy has statistics, the U.S. imported 5 billion barrels of oil, with only 11 percent coming from Saudi Arabia. As Figure 1 shows, our leading foreign supplier is Canada, which provides about 16 percent of our imports, and Mexico is second, at 12 percent.
2. VULNERABILITY OF U.S. OIL SUPPLY IS EXAGGERATED
SK/C02.02) Steven Hayward [American Enterprise Institute], THE AMERICAN, May-June 2007, p. 90, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. How secure is our energy supply today? In some ways, more secure than it was in the 1970s. The proportion of imported oil has doubled in the last 30 years, but the U.S. economy is less vulnerable to oil price shocks caused by supply disruptions, as we saw with the recent tripling of the cost per barrel. First, the U.5. economy is much more energy-efficient. Since 1375, energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product has fallen 48 percent. Second, oil represents a shrinking share of total U.S. energy consumption--from 44 percent in 1970 to 40 percent in 2005. Since the 1970s, industrialized nations have established several important backstops against short-term supply disruptions. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), in operation since 1977, holds enough oil to supply domestic needs for two months if imports are completely cut off.
SK/C02.03) Steven Hayward [American Enterprise Institute], THE AMERICAN, May-June 2007, p. 90, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In addition, following the oil shocks of the 1970s, the 158 nations established the International Energy Agency (IEA), which does for energy what the International Monetary Fund does for world banking: it acts as a mechanism to smooth and ameliorate disruptions and shocks to international energy markets. In fact, it was the IEA, acting through its standby Coordinated Emergency Response Measures (CERM),that supplied the U.5. with gasoline after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged Gulf Coast refineries and pipelines. The CERM helped prevent serious gasoline shortages and severe price increases in the fall of 2005.

3. FEARS OF RESOURCE WARS ARE FANTASY

SK/C02.04) David G. Victor [Professor of Law, Stanford U.], THE NATIONAL INTEREST, November-December 2007, p. 48, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Classic resource wars are good material for Hollywood screenwriters. They rarely occur in the real world. To be sure, resource money can magnify and prolong some conflicts, but the root causes of those hostilities usually lie elsewhere. Fixing them requires focusing on the underlying institutions that govern how resources are used and largely determine whether stress explodes into violence. When conflicts do arise, the weak link isn't a dearth in resources but a dearth in governance.


SK/C02.05) David G. Victor [Professor of Law, Stanford U.], THE NATIONAL INTEREST, November-December 2007, p. 48, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. To be sure, the struggle over resources has yielded a wide array of commercial conflicts as companies duel for contracts and ownership. State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation's (CNOOC) failed bid to acquire U.S.-based Unocal--and with it Unocal's valuable oil and gas supplies in Asia--is a recent example. But that is hardly unique to resources--similar conflicts with tinges of national security arise in the control over ports, aircraft engines, databases laden with private information and a growing array of advanced technologies for which civilian and military functions are hard to distinguish. These disputes win and lose some friendships and contracts, but they do not unleash violence.

SK/C03. CLIMATE CHANGE IS EXAGGERATED
1. THERE IS NO CONSENSUS ON GLOBAL WARMING
SK/C03.01) S. Fred Singer [Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, U. of Virginia], USA TODAY MAGAZINE, March 2008, p. 16, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In identifying the burning of fossil fuels as the chief cause of warming today, many politicians and environmental activists simply appeal to a so-called "scientific consensus." There are two things wrong with this. First, there is no such consensus. An increasing number of climate scientists are raising serious questions about the political rush to judgment on this issue. For example, the widely touted "consensus" of 2,500 scientists on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an illusion, its shared Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore notwithstanding. Most of the panelists have no scientific qualifications, and many of the others object to some part of the IPCC's report. The Associated Press reported that a mere 52 climate scientists contributed to the report's "Summary for Policymakers."
SK/C03.02) Christopher Booker, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (London), August 31, 2008, p. 26, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Custom Newspapers. The common view of the IPCC is that it consists of 2,500 of the world's leading scientists who, after carefully weighing all the evidence, have arrived at a "consensus'' that world temperatures are rising disastrously, and that the only plausible cause has been rising levels of CO2 and other man-made greenhouse gases. In fact, as has become ever more apparent over the past 20 years - not least thanks to the evidence of a succession of scientists who have participated in the IPCC itself - the reality of this curious body could scarcely be more different. It is not so much a scientific as a political organisation. Its brief has never been to look dispassionately at all the evidence for man-made global warming: it has always taken this as an accepted fact. Indeed only a comparatively small part of its reports are concerned with the science of climate change at all. The greater part must start by accepting the official line, and are concerned only with assessing the impact of warming and what should be done about it.
SK/C03.03) Walter Starck [marine scientist], NATIONAL OBSERVER - AUSTRALIA AND WORLD AFFAIRS, Winter 2008, p. 43, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The theory of catastrophic global warming due to CO2 emissions rests on two fundamental elements. One is that CO2 absorbs infrared radiation. The other is that interactive computer models of climate have been constructed to show increased warming with increased CO2. However, a couple of dozen different climate models all produce differing results in accord with the assumptions and estimates they each incorporate. While the absorption of infrared by CO2 is undisputed, the amount of such heating on global climate is highly uncertain. There is good reason to think it has been greatly overestimated. The current understanding on which the climate models are based is very incomplete.

SK/C03.04) S. Fred Singer [Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, U. of Virginia], USA TODAY MAGAZINE, March 2008, p. 16, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In the past few years, there has been increasing concern about global climate change on the part of the media, politicians, and the public. It has been stimulated by the idea that human activities may influence global climate adversely and that, therefore, corrective action is required on the part of governments. Recent evidence suggests that this concern is misplaced. Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action. I also would argue that--should it occur--a modest warming would be, on the whole, beneficial.



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