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Republicans' work not enough, they say. (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060726/BUSINESS01/607260356/1014)

Justin Hyde - Detroit Free Press - July 26, 2006

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/US_Capitol.jpg
US Capitol - Democrats propose to legislate us out of this mess?

Congressional Democrats launched a broadside against Republicans Tuesday over record-high gas prices, offering several proposals - including a "Manhattan Project" for fuel-efficient cars - all of which require that Republicans lose control of Congress in November.

In an increasingly partisan Congress, Democrats believe that a lack of progress on energy issues has given them an advantage with voters facing $3-a-gallon gas for the foreseeable future. U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said polls show that gas prices "are more on people's minds than even the war in Iraq."

Republican leaders countered that Democrats have opposed several measures that would have increased energy supply, namely bills to expand oil drilling in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. The Senate may consider a bill for new gulf drilling soon, while the House approved one in June.

"It's Republicans who over the last 25 years have voted consistently to increase supply and increase funding for alternative energy sources, while it's Democrats who have stood in the way of more production and more refinery capacity at each and every turn," said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "I don't think that we are to blame, and I don't think voters will blame us."

Democrats in the House and Senate said their proposals, including a new energy bill cosponsored by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., would have no chance of passage as long as Republicans were in power. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., said Congress and the Bush administration had failed to take substantive action against rising energy prices.

"The only way it will happen is to elect Democrats," Clinton said.

The bill unveiled by Dingell and other House Democrats on Tuesday would launch a "New Manhattan Center for High Efficiency Vehicles," named after the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb in World War II. The proposed center would get an annual budget of $500 million for 10 years to design more efficient vehicles and fund research into alternative fuels.

Other parts of the bill would promote ways to distribute biofuels and require the federal government to buy more alternative-fueled vehicles.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the bill was the result of more than a year's worth of discussions among Democrats. He also said Democrats worked to avoid harming the domestic auto industry.

What a mess.

Just like the SUV driver that blames everybody but themselves for the rising cost of fuel.

The bill unveiled by Dingell and other House Democrats on Tuesday would launch a "New Manhattan Center for High Efficiency Vehicles," named after the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb in World War II. The proposed center would get an annual budget of $500 million for 10 years to design more efficient vehicles and fund research into alternative fuels.
Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Wayne, didn't you just post the history of that billion dollar project to get all three Detroit companies to produce 70mpg diesel hybrid cars? All three produced demonstrator units and promptly abandoned any notion of producing cars using:

1) Hybrid electric drivetrains
2) Lightweight composite construction
3) Diesel engines

Those core elements of the government funded cars were never, EVER adopted in any of their production sedans, and are STILL no where to be seen in any of their future offerings either! Throwing government money at something is proven to fail, even as recently as the last decade, and even in specific to the task of developing high MPG cars! Holy **** people, you don't even have to study very far back in history to know this won't work!

Hi Brandon:

___I don’t write this news but I do pass it along. As it is, I don’t even bother with the lesser H2 news anymore because it appears to be is a complete fallacy from everything I know today.

___I also know where the BS lyes in regards to this news item. We have the DOE, NREL, EPA, and Argonne with enough HP to move mountains in the transportation tech field already. The dems want to throw another .5 Billion at another new lab/project … The Democrats smell blood in the water coming close to election time and we are all being toyed with because of it. The Republican’s do not give a **** about putting this country on the right track and the Democrat’s are at a loss as to what the path should be by all appearances. All the while, the domestic auto manufacturers are losing billions per quarter and heading towards bankruptcy due to their short sightedness along with the loss of tax payer $’s under Future Car, PNGV, Future Truck, and now FreedomCar. I am getting sick of the joke played upon the US citizenry all the while the Middle East is simmering at a slow boil :(

___With the above, let us all hope we have a nicer day tomorrow ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

It seems like between Vietnam and Watergate, the two major parties worked with each other less and less. It seems like they fight each other sort of like factions in the Middle East instead. :(

I don't want to see it happen, but the day could come GM and Ford could be a shell of what they were and the US economy is in a long-term economic decline partially because we put off getting rid of our gas guzzlers. At that point, I expect both parties inside the Beltway doing nothing to fix it and playing the blame game. :mad: