Dear Editor,
California College Democrats have come out in strong support of a bridge loan for the Big Three auto companies, believing that the bill will not only help our ailing economy, but will also help create a clean energy economy as well.
‘We need to bail out the auto industry to protect jobs and our economy, but we also need to bail out our planet,’ said Chrissy Elles, president of the Campus Democrats at UCSB. ‘We need an automaker bailout bill that will require Detroit to re-organize and begin to build clean, efficient cars that will help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions.’
California College Democrats Political Director Charlie Carnow, who marched with the United Auto Workers in Los Angeles, stressed the importance of the bridge loan for our economy.
‘Can we afford to lose hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs in California?’ Carnow said. ‘Hell no! We bailed out the banks, and now it’s time to take the first step to bail out hard-working Americans.’
According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, failure of the Big 3 would put over 305,000 California jobs at risk. By granting $15 billion in loans, the automaker bailout bill will save a total of 3.3 million American jobs.
The link between the auto industry and climate change is blatant. Transportation accounts for nearly 30 percent of the United States greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.
‘What I hope is that the automaker bailout will help transition the blue-collar jobs of the auto industry into green-collar jobs,’ Elles said. ‘For years, Detroit has produced gas-guzzling vehicles that threatened our energy security and contributed to global warming. Hopefully, this will be a new beginning for Detroit, and the environment.’
The California College Democrats support the bailout as the first step toward greening the economy and call for the auto ‘czar’ to demonstrate a commitment to fuel efficiency, leading us toward the cars of the future.