GETTELFINGER TESTIFIES TO HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE
Comprehensive approach to global warming needed
The United States should set a comprehensive policy on climate change and promote alternative fuels and the domestic production of advanced technology vehicles, the UAW told a House subcommittee.
Such an approach, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in testimony March 14 before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, would not only help reverse global warming and our dependence on foreign energy sources, but also maintain and create jobs in the struggling U.S. auto sector.
“The UAW believes that climate change and energy security are serious problems,” Gettelfinger told lawmakers. “The promotion of alternative fuels can make an enormous contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on foreign oil.”
The union supports legislation that would require certain percentages of all vehicles sold in the United States by each automaker to be flex-fuel capable by specified dates.
Gettelfinger also testified that federal tax incentives currently provided to consumers who buy certain advanced technology vehicles do not take into account where the vehicles or their components are built. Most are manufactured overseas and as these vehicles gain market share, it means the United States is actually subsidizing the movement of automotive jobs to other nations. He urged lawmakers to use tax or other incentives to encourage domestic production of advanced technology vehicles and key components.
“This type of approach would help to maintain and create tens of thousands of automotive jobs in this country,” he said. “At the same time, it would help to accelerate the introduction of these advanced technology vehicles, and thereby reduce global warming emissions and our dependence on foreign oil.”
The nation’s entire economy relies on fossil fuels, Gettelfinger said, so a cap on carbon emissions from all sources, including coal, oil and natural gas is needed. But a "cap and trade" program makes more sense than an inflexible, one-size-fits-all cap.
Under a market-based cap-and-trade system, a utility that switches to wind power, for example, could sell its now unneeded permits to emit carbon to a utility still using coal. This will create incentives for investment in energy efficiency and emissions-control technology.
Gettelfinger said global warming simply cannot be reduced through changes in the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program. Requiring entire sectors of the economy to participate in a formal program to cut greenhouse gases would ensure reductions are done in an economically efficient manner while protecting jobs.
“The UAW believes that changes in the CAFE program are the least desirable option for addressing the problems of climate change and energy security,” he said.
President Bush’s CAFE proposal would require automakers to improve fuel economy across all of their product lines, a move the UAW has sought because it doesn’t discriminate against full-line automakers who build vehicles in a variety of styles and sizes. But it must contain protection against “back-sliding,” where automakers could increase the size of vehicles in their overall fleet to improve their fuel economy numbers.
That would encourage U.S. automakers to offshore the manufacture of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. It is vital that the U.S. retain domestic production of smaller, more fuel-efficient passenger cars for long-term energy security and for the 17,000 Americans who work in those plants.
