Automakers pledge climate cooperation

WASHINGTON — U.S. automakers and a top union official pledged Wednesday to work with Congress to find new ways of dealing with global warming but declared their industry could not bear the burden alone.

The leaders of General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Chrysler, along with the head of the United Auto Workers union, made a rare joint appearance before a House subcommittee. They stressed that proposed increases in gas mileage standards for new vehicles would be extremely expensive and could have calamitous results.

"This could include the closing of additional facilities and the loss of tens of thousand of automotive jobs," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said.

But all of the industry leaders, under questioning from House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., vowed to work with the committee to produce regulations to address climate change and consider "new regulatory regimes" beyond the fuel economy program.

"Inaction will not work, and telling us what doesn't work is useful but no longer sufficient," Dingell said.

The committee was exploring alternatives to the fuel economy program, possibly through the regulation of a vehicle's carbon dioxide emissions. Gettelfinger, for example, said the UAW wanted Congress to look into the potential of a carbon control policy that would require reductions in carbon emissions of vehicles.

All of the auto leaders answered "yes" when asked by Dingell if they were willing to consider "a system which regulates the emissions of carbon dioxide from your vehicles."

Congress heard from the automakers at a time when many lawmakers are concerned about global warming and seeking ways to require more fuel efficiency in vehicles. The White House is aiming for a 4 percent increase in fuel economy requirements and wants to change how the rules are applied.

Rick Wagoner, General Motors Corp.'s chairman and chief executive, said the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program, or CAFE, had "failed dramatically" based on its original intentions of reducing gasoline consumption and reliance upon imported oil.

Wagoner said a 4 percent increase in gas mileage standards would be "extraordinarily expensive and technologically challenging to implement."

"Even with this proposed CAFE increase ... America will still be using more — and more likely importing more — oil than ever as well as producing more (carbon dioxide) emissions," Wagoner said.