What's your impression of the American Manufacturing Initiative ?

Question

http://www.carllevin.com/news/2007/05/17/american-manufacturing-initiative/

Will this work? What should be done differently to get our economy back on it's feet?

Note that I live in Michigan and our economy is highly dependent on the automotive industry.

Answer 1

I say LESS Govt  & More Free Enterprise.

Id boost these:

More flexfuel engines

More Hybrids

More automation & robotics.

More Voc Ed & Tech Ed for ALL schools, HS.

More adult Tech Ed

Ex GM , Ford plants produce:

Luigi Colani trucks, car types.

Kit cars.

Planes

spacecraft

robotics

Or become Multi use.

Unions kick into deal with Low Dues or No Dues.

Expand AMI to ALL fields & Industries.

Include more electronics, CAD, robotics.

Openup to New Thinking.

Answer 2

I hope GM and Ford can regain their footing. They really dropped the ball.

Answer 3

They need to DRIVE the market. We don't live in Adam Smith's little fantasy land of the invisible hand...we live in a compromised world between socialism and true capitalism. The American Auto market has been "giving the people what they want" (ie big SUV's and trucks) for too freaking long. The need to come out with an entire fleet of fuel efficient and reliable cars, build them here (as cheaply as possible) and place some serious taxes on imports.

- oh ya, and invest in new technology. for once in the HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY, we are falling behind in the technology department. The Japanese and the Chinese are catching up. However, the Chinese's growth will be stunted when the world sees how they treat their laborers and they are forced by the world community to reform their labor laws.

Answer 4

Carl Levin is a senatorial superstar, but I think this is weak.

I.B.1. FFV mandate - stupid. Making a gas car E85 friendly is a fairly minor change in the PCM firmware (for the designer, not for the consumer.)  All diesels ALREADY can run biodiesel, so the only thing they could do is allow it in the warranty.  Besides ethanol/biodiesel can't cover enough of our energy needs.

I.B.2. Technology Goal - good goal,  but it's also a CAFE weasel-out.  That's crazy, American CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) is already too low.  They should only get credit for actually bringing cars to market.

What they need is a law that gives CAFE credit for PHEVs and full EVs.

They should also mandate that all diesels be made biodiesel tolerant (i.e. B100 use doesn't violate warranty).

They should also encourage development on coldstart-SVO technologies, i.e. which allow a diesel car/truck to use straight veggie oil as its only fuel, and coldstart with SVO in the lines.  (this honors Dr. Diesel's original intentions for his engine.)

IV.A. Hydrogen - yes, yes. This is where hydrogen should be promoted, as it's sure not viable at the home hobbyist level. But don't inflict it on the DOD, "eat your own dogfood" as Microsoft says.

V.B. Ethanol - no, no!  The bill overemphasizes ethanol, even mandating 10% ethanol mandatory in all fuel.  There isn't enough farmland in the whole country to make that much ethanol by current methods, and and the high energy-cost of distillation makes it a comparatively wasteful fuel to produce.  Compared to biodiesel for instance.