It seems that U.S. industry is on the brink of a possible divorce between the oil companies and the automobile manufacturers. Perhaps it is the sense of opportunity this situation presents that has rallied the Democrats to lobby for a bailout for Detroit (or perhaps it's the volume of the carmakers' lament, amplified through Michigan Representative John Dingell). In any case, this could be our chance to embrace alternative fuels and upgrade CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) standards and low-emissions requirements.
Attaching strict requirements to bailout money would be a great way to speed up novel technologies and factory retooling. The package could be additionally padded with long-term tax incentives that would keep the industry pointed in the "right" direction and help offset some of the profit-margin difficulties that will likely arise with a radical redesign of their products.
Indeed, it strikes me as odd that, in a period when oil companies have broken all corporate quarterly profit records for the umpteenth time, they haven't tried to prop up the auto manufacturers, if only in their own self-interest. After all, if the syringe company goes bankrupt, it's a lot harder to sell your heroin. Perhaps their greed will get the best of them yet, or maybe they're counting on foreign manufacturers to take up the slack, but even the foreign firms seem more focused on re-inventing the horseless chariot on their own. There is handwriting on the wall, and it may well be in green ink.
Here we are at a new turning point, with a fresh, progressive-leaning administration and a Congress that's become more progressive than it has been in two decades. It may be that now is the time for us to pry the auto industry away from the oil industry with as many carrots and/or sticks as we can muster. To increase our leverage in the situation, some backroom deals may need be made to keep Detroit afloat until the new regime takes over in January. Whatever it takes, there seems to be an opportunity on the horizon, and it should be seized by all who support real change.
