Autoblog

ooooh. You broke a promise. I'm tellin mom.

oh, BTW it can't get here soon enough, but something's telling me it won't even come here at all. Lately, car companies are doing the opposite of what they should.... Case in point.

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@No Welfare for GM:

Think about the implications of what you just wrote. Toyota is a private (Japanese) company, and what it chooses to do, and not do, is largely outside the influence of the (American) government. Now, you could argue the Bush administration could have done more to encourage the development of plug-in hybrid technology, in the form of grants, tax incentives, etc. But aren't these just different forms of "welfare"? If you don't want American taxpayers to provide "welfare" for GM, an American company, why would you possibly want us to provide "welfare" for Toyota, a Japanese company?

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"If our government (sitting President) weren't so hostile to anything that makes air cleaner this project would have been launched here."

You do realize that Bush's ranch is completely off the grid, recycles rain water, and uses no fossil fuels?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

You also need to realize that being president is not like being King. You don't wave your hand and make energy policy appear. That is the job of Congress.

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To further the point that Yar made:

The President only signs(or vetoes) laws that are put in front of him by Congress. The President can't set air quality standards, or approve tax breaks, or anything you seem to wish for the president to do or not do. He(or she) has to have those items put in front of their desk by the Congress for them to sign.

I have a funny feeling that come January, you're not going to feel any better since the rules and limits of the presidency won't have changed, again, the President is not King.

It's also going to get potentially worse since there will likely be even more Democrats in Congress and currently, the Democratically-controlled Congress has the lowest approval rating in history and they have done virtually nothing in the two years they have been in control. If that's the "Change" we are waiting on, count me out.

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It's Renault that's testing their EVs in Israel not Nissan. Renault owns a majority share in Nissan, not the other way around.

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@montoym

Do you realize what you just said? You just said that the president only has the power to approve and veteo stuff brought to him. Then you complained about the Democrats controlling congress for the last 2 years and doing nothing. Wouldn't that mean if the Democrats did bring anything to the desk the (Republican) president would just vetoe it anyway?

A very important bill was brought to the presidents desk recently that would have given children under the age of 18 free healthcare. Bush vetoed it. Gee that sounds responsible.(sarcasm) People are having to choose between gas or health insurance for their kids these days and when a bill brought to a person could approve it he vetoes it. Doesn't sound like anybody who I would have a good approval rating of.

Wether or not the Dems or Rep have control over congress and opposite is president, nothing good ever gets past for our country.

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"UK doesn't have it's own Auto industry that is of any respectable size."

Complete rubbish. The UK motor industry built 1.6 million cars last year, of which 70% were exported. In addition to that, it built a quarter of a million commercial vehicles, of which just over half were exported. The UK car industry employs some 800,000 people.

Now, the vast majority of that industry comprises of subsidiary companies of foreign parents, but a country's industry is measured on how much it contributes to that country's economy, and not the nationality of its shareholders.

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It wouldn't, it wasn't cheap enough at the time and the technology wasn't sufficiently advanced. Things are changing now, but even with that in mind it may be a tough sell.

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