Andrea Bernstein

President Obama at Daimler Trucks in Mt. Holly, North Carolina (photo: John Adkisson/Getty Images News)

Continuing to push his energy agenda in the key swing state of North Carolina, President Obama Wednesday said more fuel efficient trucks will be able to save $15,000 a year -- and reduce oil consumption by more than 12 billion barrels.

Tell congress "we’re tired of hearing phony election-year promises that never come about," the President told a rowdy crowd. " What we need is a serious, sustained, all-of-the-above strategy for American-made energy, American-made efficiency, American innovation, American fuel-efficient trucks, American fuel-efficient cars.  We may not get there in one term --" President Obama said, before being interrupted with chants of  "Four more years!" -- "It's going to take us a whole to wean ourselves off the old and grab the new.  But we're going to meet this challenge because we are Americans!"

Here's the full transcript:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

ON ENERGY

Daimler Truck Manufacturing Plant

Mount Holly, North Carolina

12:50 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, North Carolina! (Applause.) Hello, Mount Holly! (Applause.) Thank you, Juan, for that introduction. I did not know he was a preacher. (Laughter.) He must be at least a deacon. (Laughter.) I was hearing -- "Welll" -- (Laughter.) He was starting to get the spirit up here. I'm going to take Juan on the road to introduce me everywhere. (Laughter.) Can I hear an "amen"?

AUDIENCE: Amen!

THE PRESIDENT: Amen.

I want to thank Mark Hernandez, Ricky McDowell -- (applause) -- and Martin Daum for hosting us and being such great tour guides. Thank you so much, everybody. Give them a big round of applause. (Applause.)

We've got a few outstanding North Carolinians in the house. You've got your Governor, Bev Perdue, is here. (Applause.) Your mayors, Bryan Hough and Anthony Foxx are here. (Applause.) Two outstanding Congressmen, Mel Watt and Heath Shuler are here. (Applause.) Thank you all for being here.

It is good to be in North Carolina. Anthony Foxx pointed out that I decided to wear a tie that could be a Tar Heel -- (applause) -- but it's got a little Duke color in there, too.

AUDIENCE: Booo --

THE PRESIDENT: I didn’t want to get in trouble with anybody, so I was hedging my bets. (Laughter.)

I always tell people I am one of the best advertisers for North Carolina. I love this state. (Applause.) Love this state. Everybody here is so nice, so welcoming. Even the folks who don't vote for me, they're nice to me. They usually wave five fingers. (Laughter.) So it's just a great pleasure.

And I just had a chance to see some of the folks who are doing the work here today. I couldn't be more impressed. Some people have been here -- like Juan -- 32 years, 25 years. Some folks have been here for four months, or six months, have just gotten hired. But everybody had such pride in their work.

And the Freighterline trucks that you’re making here at this plant run on natural gas, and that makes them quieter, it makes them better for the environment, it makes them cheaper to fill up than they would be with diesel. I hear you sold your 1,000th natural gas truck last November -– (applause) -- the first company to reach that milestone. And it was made right here in Mount Holly. (Applause.) And last year, this plant added more than 1,000 workers, hiring back a lot of folks who were laid off during the recession. (Applause.) That is something to be proud of.

Now, here at Daimler, you're not just building trucks. You're building better trucks.

AUDIENCE: That’s right.

THE PRESIDENT: You're building trucks that use less oil. And you know that’s especially important right now because most of you have probably filled up your gas tank a time or two in the last week, and you've seen how quickly the price of gas is going up. A lot of you may have to drive a distance to work. Higher gas prices are like a tax straight out of your paycheck.

And for companies that operate a whole fleet of trucks, the higher costs can make a big difference in terms of the profitability of the company.

Now, here's the thing, though -- this is not the first time we've seen gas prices spike. It's been happening for years. Every year, about this time, gas starts spiking up, and everybody starts wondering, how high is it going to go? And every year, politicians start talking when gas prices go up. They get out on the campaign trail -- and you and I both know there are no quick fixes to this problem -- but listening to them, you'd think there were.

As a country that has 2 percent of the world's oil reserves, but uses 20 percent of the world's oil -- I'm going to repeat that -- we've got 2 percent of the world oil reserves; we use 20 percent. What that means is, as much as we're doing to increase oil production, we're not going to be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices. Anybody who tells you otherwise either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or they aren’t telling you the truth.

Here is the truth. If we are going to control our energy future, then we’ve got to have an all-of-the-above strategy. We’ve got to develop every source of American energy -- not just oil and gas, but wind power and solar power, nuclear power, biofuels. We need to invest in the technology that will help us use less oil in our cars and our trucks, in our buildings, in our factories. That’s the only solution to the challenge. Because as we start using less, that lowers the demand, prices come down. It's pretty straightforward. That’s the only solution to this challenge.

And that’s the strategy that we’ve now been pursuing for the last three years. And I’m proud to say we’ve made progress.

Since I took office, America’s dependence on foreign oil has gone down every single year. In fact, in 2010, it went under 50 percent for the first time in 13 years.

You wouldn’t know it from listening to some of these folks out here -- (laughter) -- some of these folks -- (laughter) -- but a key part of our energy strategy has been to increase safe, responsible oil production here at home. Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than any time in the last eight years. Under my administration, we’ve quadrupled the number of operating oilrigs to a record high. We’ve got more oilrigs operating now than we’ve ever seen. We’ve opened up millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration. We’ve approved more than 400 drilling permits that follow new safety standards after we had that mess down in the Gulf.

We’re approving dozens of new pipelines. We just announced that we’ll do whatever we can to speed up construction of a pipeline in Oklahoma that’s going to relieve a bottleneck and get more oil to the Gulf -- to the refineries down there -- and that’s going to help create jobs, encourage more production.

So these are the facts on oil production. If somebody tells you we’re not producing enough oil, they just don’t know the facts.

But how much oil we produce here at home, because we only have 2 percent and we use 20, that’s not going to set the price of gas worldwide, or here in the United States. Oil is bought and sold on the world market. And the biggest thing that’s causing the price of oil to rise right now is instability in the Middle East. You guys have been hearing about what’s happening with Iran; there are other oil producers that are having problems. And so people have gotten uncertain. And when uncertainty increases, then sometimes you see speculation on Wall Street that drives up gas prices even more.

But here's the thing. Over the long term, the biggest reason oil prices will go up is there's just growing demand in countries like China and India and Brazil. There are a lot of people there. In 2010 alone, China added nearly 10 million cars on its roads. Think about that -- 2010, 10 million new cars. People in China, folks in India, folks in Brazil -- they're going to want cars, too, as their standard of living goes up, and that means more demand for oil, and that's going to kick up the price of oil worldwide. Those numbers are only going to get bigger over time.

So what does that mean for us? It means we can't just keep on relying on the old ways of doing business. We can't just rely on fossil fuels from the last century. We've got to continually develop new sources of energy.

And that’s why we've made investments that have nearly doubled the use of clean, renewable energies in this country. And thousands of Americans have jobs because of it. It also means we’ve got to develop the resources that we have that are untapped, like natural gas. We're developing a near hundred-year supply of natural gas -– and that's something that we expect could support more than 600,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

And that’s why we've worked with the private sector to develop a high-tech car battery that costs half as much as other batteries and can go up to 300 miles on a single charge. Think about that. That will save you some money at the pump. And that is why we are helping companies like this one right here and plants like this one right here to make more cars and trucks that use less oil.

When I ran for office, I went to Detroit and I gave a speech to automakers where I promised that I was going to raise fuel standards on our cars, so that they’d go further on a gallon of gas. I said we should do the same thing on trucks. I have to tell you, when I said it, I didn't get a lot of applause in the room, because there was a time when automakers were resisting higher fuel standards -- because change isn't easy. But you know what, after three decades of not doing anything, we got together with the oil companies, we got together with the unions, we got together with folks who usually do not see eye to eye, and we negotiated new fuel economy standards that are going to make sure our cars average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade. That's nearly double what they get today -- nearly double. (Applause.)

Now, because of these new standards for cars and trucks, they're going to -- all going to be able to go further and use less fuel every year. And that means pretty soon you’ll be able to fill up your car every two weeks instead of every week -– and, over time, that saves you, a typical family, about $8,000 a year.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We like that.

THE PRESIDENT: You like that, don't you?

AUDIENCE: Yes! (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Eight thousand dollars -- that's no joke. We can reduce our oil consumption by more than 12 billion barrels. And thanks to the SuperTruck program that we’ve started with companies like this one, trucks will be able to save more than $15,000 in fuel costs every year. Think about that, $15,000.

It looks like somebody might have fainted up here. Have we got some of the EMS, somebody. Don’t worry about -- folks do this all the time in my meetings. (Laughter.) You’ve always got to eat before you stand for a long time. That’s a little tip. But they'll be okay. Just make sure that -- give them a little room. All right, everybody all right? Okay.

So these trucks can save $15,000 every year. I want people to think about what that means for businesses, what it means for consumers. It is real progress. And it's happening because of American workers and American know-how. It's happening because of you. It's happening because of you.

We’re also making it easier for big companies -- some of your customers, like UPS and FedEx -- to make the shift to fuel-efficient cars and trucks. We call it the National Clean Fleets Partnership. And since we announced it last year, the number of companies that are taking part in it has tripled. And that means more customers for your trucks. (Applause.) We're creating more customers for your trucks.

And I am proud to say that the federal government is leading by example. One thing the federal government has a lot of is cars and trucks. We got a lot of cars and we got a lot of trucks. And so what I did was I directed every department, every agency in the federal government, to make sure that by 2015, 100 percent of the vehicles we buy run on alternative fuels -- 100 percent. (Applause.)

So we’re one of the biggest customers in the world for cars and trucks and we want to set that bar high. We want to set a standard that says by 2015, 100 percent of cars, alternative fuels.

So we’re making progress, Mount Holly. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much natural gas, or flex-fuel or electric vehicles you have if there’s no place to charge them up or fill them up. So that’s why I’m announcing today a program that will put our communities on the cutting edge of what clean energy can do.

To cities and towns all across the country, what we’re going to say is, if you make a commitment to buy more advanced vehicles for your community -- whether they run on electricity or biofuels or natural gas -- we’ll help you cut through the red tape and build fueling stations nearby. (Applause.) And we’ll offer tax breaks to families that buy these cars, companies that buy alternative fuel trucks like the ones that are made right here at Mount Holly. (Applause.) So we’re going to give communities across the country more of an incentive to make the shift to more energy-efficient cars.

In fact, when I was up in New Hampshire, in Nashua, they had already converted all their dump trucks -- they were in a process because of this program -- they were converting it to natural gas-driven trucks.

This is something that we did in education -- we called it Race to the Top. We said we’ll put in more money but we want you to reform. We’re going to give you an incentive to do things in a different way. And if we do the same thing with clean energy, we can save consumers money and we can make sure the economy is more secure. So we’ve got to keep investing in American-made energy and we’ve got to keep investing in the vehicles that run on it. That’s where our future is.

And in order to continue this progress, we’re going to have to make a choice. We’ve got to decide where our priorities are as a country. And that’s up to all of you. And I’ll give you an example. Right now, $4 billion of your tax dollars goes straight to the oil industry every year -- $4 billion in subsidies that other companies don’t get. Now, keep in mind, these are some of the same companies that are making record profits every time you fill up your gas tank. We’re giving them extra billions of dollars on top of near-record profits that they’re already making. Anybody think that’s a good idea?

AUDIENCE No!

THE PRESIDENT: Me, neither. (Laughter.) It doesn’t make any sense. The American people have subsidized the oil industry long enough -- they don’t need the subsidies. It’s time to end that taxpayer giveaway to an industry that's never been more profitable, invest in clean energy that's never been more promising. (Applause.)

So I called on Congress, eliminate these subsidies right away. There’s no excuse to wait any longer.

AUDIENCE: That's right!

THE PRESIDENT: And we should put every member of Congress on record: They can stand up for the oil companies or they can stand up for the American people and this new energy future. (Applause.) We can place our bets on the fuel of the past, or we can place our bets on American know-how and American ingenuity and American workers like the ones here at Daimler. (Applause.) That’s the choice we face. That’s what’s at stake right now.

So, in between shifts, get on the phone or email or send a letter or tweet -- (laughter) -- your member of Congress; ask them where they stand on this -- because it will make a difference. And you’ll know where I stand on this. Let’s make sure our voices are heard. The next time you hear some politician trotting out some 3-point plan for $2 gas -- (laughter) -- you let them know, we know better.

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE PRESIDENT: Tell them we’re tired of hearing phony election-year promises that never come about. What we need is a serious, sustained, all-of-the-above strategy for American-made energy, American-made efficiency, American innovation, American fuel-efficient trucks, American fuel-efficient cars. We may not get there in one term --

AUDIENCE: Four more years! (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: It's going to take us a while to wean ourselves off of the old and grab the new. But we're going to meet this challenge because we are Americans. Our destiny is not written for us; it is written by us. We decide what that next chapter is going to be.

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE PRESIDENT: And I'm confident, working with folks like you, the outstanding working people of Mount Holly, of this plant, of North Carolina, of states all across the country, we can pull together, and remind everybody around the world just why it is that the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

The Hill is reporting that House Speaker John Boehner is making one last push to rally Republicans around his $260 billion transportation bill.

From the report:

Boehner bluntly warned lawmakers that if the House does not pass its own bill, it will be stuck with a two-year, $109 billion Senate bill, or “something that looks just like it,” according to a source in the room.

“You don’t like that? I don’t like it either. Why would any of us like it?” the Speaker told his members. “It means punting on the opportunity to pass an infrastructure bill that bears our stamp. It means giving up on the opportunity to make sure a bill is enacted that is responsibly paid for, that has full-scale reforms in it and, most importantly, that is linked to increased production of American energy.

“But right now, it’s the plan.”

More soon.

Sad news for those of us who've pounded the NY MTA for information over the last five years -- Jeremy Soffin, relatively newly married and the father of a newborn, will be leaving as the agency's chief spokesman.

Soffin's been there through several MTA chiefs, including Jay Walder, who left this October for a job in Hong Kong.

It's tough job answering for the nation's largest transit agency -- and of the few in the world that runs 24/7 -- and we certainly have asked our share of tough questions.

We wish him well.

A Queens NY driving school at the center of a fraud scandal is being suspended, and as a result, 174 people who used the school to obtain commercial drivers licenses must be retested.

From the press release:

"The school's owners, Ying Wai Phillip Ng and Pui Kuen Ng, who are married, were charged last week with conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with the operation of the driving school. The couple allegedly fraudulently assisted an undercover agent in passing a written commercial drivers' license permit test through the use of an elaborate system using a hidden camera and pager."

"The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has identified the commercial drivers' license holders who were customers of the N&Y driving school. The DMV is notifying them that they must be retested immediately or their licenses will be suspended. Failure to call the DMV by this Friday to schedule a retest will result in an immediate suspension of their commercial drivers' license."

Literally, in this week's New Yorker cover, Romney drives away with it, with Santorum in the doghouse.

Gas prices, the auto industry bail-out, domestic oil production...

This election is all about transportation.

Questions, anyone?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised that a proposed new casino/convention center in Queens wouldn't cost anything to the NY MTA.  But at a Crain's Breakfast forum this week, an executive for the development firm set to build the complex seemed to carve out a loophole -- one caused by the borough's own transit needs.

Here's an exchange between Genting Sr. VP Christian Goode and moderator Greg David:

Q: Do you expect the organization would have to spend money on transportation infrastructures to improve access to the site?

A: What we warranted -- what we represented up front if there’s infrastructure that’s  needed we would work collectively.  I think the infrastructure needs have been identified for a long time for the area.  Our project would be just one more reason to do it.  I think from the city perspective, the state perspective, highways and stuff  -- I think there’s already a plan by the DOT, and so on and so forth,  that there’s a need for infrastructure upgrades.

What we represented is that, if we have express service from the MTA coming out we would fund the capital costs of that. Now other things I think are in discussion --

Some local elected officials brought up the Rockaway spur, the Rockaway express line that could be reconstituted -- probably most likely necessary to provide adequate mass transit to the residents of Queens in general.

When you compare Queens to Brooklyn to the Bronx, and certainly to Manhattan their access to mass transit is significantly less than the other boroughs whether there be express bus or train service.

I think there is a need our project would add to the need. We look forward working cooperatively and collaboratively to go through that process. How the finances work out its way to early to tell. I don’t know all the research and analysis has been done to see what could become and what that would cost .

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission is making your ride even more commercial -- beginning soon, your taxi receipt will have an advertisement, like this one.  

TLC Chairman David Yassky  says any ad revenue the industry makes could potentially keep prices down for customers.

“The credit card vendors would get the advertising revenue. The theory is that it holds down the fees they charge to taxi owners and holds down fare pressure,” Yassky explained.

But the drivers group Taxi Workers Alliance opposes having ads on the back of taxi receipts, since cabbies won’t share in the revenue. The group’s Executive Director Bhairavi Desai said drivers haven’t received a fare increase since 2004, yet they pay at least five percent for every credit card transaction.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics says passenger airlines employed 2.7 percent more workers in December 2011 than they did in December 2010, making it the 13th straight month of growth.

Here's the BTS release:

U.S. scheduled passenger airlines employed 2.7 percent more workers in December 2011 than they did in December 2010, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today. This is the 13th consecutive month that full-time equivalent employee (FTE) levels for the scheduled passenger carriers have been higher than the same month of the previous year.  FTE calculations count two part-time employees as one full-time employee.

BTS, a part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, reported that the December FTE total of 389,728 for the scheduled passenger carriers was 10,077 more than that of December 2010. These monthly increases reflect gradual improvement in the industry’s employment following declines that began in July 2008. Historic employment data can be found on the BTS web site.

Of the network airlines, only Delta Air Lines, which has been eliminating duplicate positions following its merger with Northwest Airlines, decreased employment from December 2010 to December 2011. Continental Airlines reported 14.5 percent more FTEs in December 2011 than in December 2010, the largest increase among the network carriers. US Airways followed Continental with a 2.9 percent increase. Network airlines operate a significant portion of flights using at least one hub where connections are made for flights to down-line destinations or spoke cities.

All seven low-cost carriers reported more FTEs in December 2011 than in December 2010, except for Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines, which reported a 1.2 percent decrease and a 4.9 percent decrease, respectively. The low-cost carriers with more reported FTEs are Virgin America Airlines, Spirit Airlines, JetBlue Airways, AirTran Airways and Southwest Airlines.

Among the 17 regional carriers, the six carriers reporting reduced employment levels compared to last year were Horizon Airlines, Republic Airlines, Comair, Mesaba Airlines, Mesa Airlines and Executive Airlines.

Scheduled passenger airline categories include network, low-cost, regional and other airlines.

On Wednesday, I'll be moderating a panel at the NYC Transit Museum on our documentary "Back of the Bus: Mass Transit, Race, and Inequality."  I'll be playing clips, showing slides, and chatting with Elena Conte of the Pratt Center, Anita Hairston of PolicyLink, and Cecil Corbin-Mark of WEACT about continuing issues surrounding race and mass transit in New York and around the nation. Come join the discussion!

In the typical definition of housing affordability, your rent or mortgage would be a third, or less, of your income.   And by that standard, some 76 percent of neighborhoods are affordable.  But when you add in transportation costs, the results are jarring:  fewer than a third of American neighborhoods -- just 28 percent -- are affordable.

Those results come by way of a new analysis by the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago -- and they're significantly worse than results CNT published a year ago -- which looked at older data, and a smaller sample size.  In the older study, 69 percent of homes were affordable, based on 2000 census data under the narrower definition, while 39 percent were affordable adding in transportation costs.

"It's very stark," said the CNT's Scott Bernstein, who spoke of traveling through the country and seeing "entire subdivisions that got built and were never occupied, or are empty because people moved out."

For the last five years, on average, Bernstein says 200,000 families moved in with another family.

And these figures don't take into account recent spikes in gas prices.

The data also show what a profound difference good transit makes to transportation costs.   In the New York-New Jersey region, the average transportation costs is $10,158 a year.  But in areas with good transit, that number plummets to $1985.  Areas with the least access to transit cost $19,003 a year.

In Houston, the range is $7958 on the low end, and $19181 on the high end.  In Orlando, it's $9203 and $17705.

And in San Francisco/Oakland, it's $5368 and $19709.

You can see a ranking of metro areas, by transportation costs, here.

President Obama (White House photo)

President Barack Obama all but danced on his opponents graves today, choosing the day the GOP battles it out in Michigan to address American autoworkers.  Those opponents -- both of whom opposed the auto bailout -- haven't made things better for themselves by citing the number cars they own (Romney--four, including two Cadillacs), his friends among Nascar owners (Romney) and how gas prices caused the recession (Santorum)

President Obama was particularly gleeful about all the money his new mileage standards will save -- $8000 "over time," he says.

After three decades of inaction, we’re gradually putting in place the toughest fuel economy standards in history for our cars and pickups.  That means the cars you build will average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade -- almost double what they get today.  (Applause.)  That means folks, every time they fill up, they're going to be saving money.  They'll have to fill up every two weeks instead of every week.  That saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time. That means we’ll cut our oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day.  That means we have to import less oil while we're selling more cars all around the world.

Here's the full transcript.

THE PRESIDENT:  How's it going, UAW?  (Applause.)  It is good to be with some autoworkers today!  (Applause.)  All right. Everybody have a seat, get comfortable.  Go ahead and get comfortable.  I'm going to talk for a little bit.  (Applause.) 

First of all, I want to say thank you to one of the finest leaders that we have in labor -- Bob King.  Give it up for Bob.  (Applause.)  I want to thank the International Executive Board and all of you for having me here today.  It is a great honor.  I brought along somebody who is proving to be one of the finest Secretaries of Transportation in our history -- Ray LaHood is in the house.  Give Ray a big round of applause.  (Applause.)  

It is always an honor to spend time with folks who represent the working men and women of America.  (Applause.)  It’s unions like yours that fought for jobs and opportunity for generations of American workers.  It’s unions like yours that helped build the arsenal of democracy that defeated fascism and won World War II.  It's unions like yours that forged the American middle class -- that great engine of prosperity, the greatest that the world has ever known.

So you guys helped to write the American story.  And today, you’re busy writing a proud new chapter.  You are reminding us that no matter how tough times get, Americans are tougher.  (Applause.)  No matter how many punches we take, we don’t give up.  We get up.  We fight back.  We move forward.  We come out the other side stronger than before.  That's what you've shown us.  (Applause.)  You're showing us what’s possible in America.  So I’m here to tell you one thing today:  You make me proud.  (Applause.)  You make me proud.

Take a minute and think about what you and the workers and the families that you represent have fought through.  A few years ago, nearly one in five autoworkers were handed a pink slip -- one in five.  Four hundred thousand jobs across this industry vanished the year before I took office.  And then as the financial crisis hit with its full force, America faced a hard and once unimaginable reality, that two of the Big 3 automakers  -- GM and Chrysler -- were on the brink of liquidation.

     The heartbeat of American manufacturing was flat-lining and we had to make a choice.  With the economy in complete free fall there were no private investors or companies out there willing to take a chance on the auto industry.  Nobody was lining up to give you guys loans.  Anyone in the financial sector can tell you that.

     So we could have kept giving billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars to automakers without demanding the real changes or accountability in return that were needed -- that was one option. But that wouldn’t have solved anything in the long term.  Sooner or later we would have run out of money.  We could have just kicked the problem down the road.  The other option was to do absolutely nothing and let these companies fail.  And you will recall there were some politicians who said we should do that.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Some even said we should "let Detroit go bankrupt."

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  You remember that?  (Applause.)  You know.  (Laughter.)  Think about what that choice would have meant for this country, if we had turned our backs on you, if America had thrown in the towel, if GM and Chrysler had gone under.  The suppliers, the distributors that get their business from these companies, they would have died off.  Then even Ford could have gone down as well.  Production shut down.  Factories shuttered.  Once-proud companies chopped up and sold off for scraps.  And all of you, the men and women who built these companies with your own hands, would have been hung out to dry.

     More than one million Americans across the country would have lost their jobs in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  In communities across the Midwest, it would have been another Great Depression.  And then think about all the people who depend on you.  Not just your families, but the schoolteachers, the small business owners, the server in the diner who knows your order, the bartender who’s waiting for you to get off.  (Laughter.)  That’s right.  (Applause.)  Their livelihoods were at stake as well. 

And you know what was else at stake?  How many of you who’ve worked the assembly line had a father or a grandfather or a mother who worked on that same line?  (Applause.)  How many of you have sons and daughters who said, you know, Mom, Dad, I'd like to work at the plant, too?  (Applause.) 

These jobs are worth more than just a paycheck.  They’re a source of pride.  They’re a ticket to a middle-class life that make it possible for you to own a home and raise kids and maybe send them -- yes -- to college.  (Applause.)  Give you a chance to retire with some dignity and some respect.  These companies are worth more than just the cars they build.  They’re a symbol of American innovation and know-how.  They're the source of our manufacturing might.  If that’s not worth fighting for, what's worth fighting for?  (Applause.)

So, no, we were not going to take a knee and do nothing.  We were not going to give up on your jobs and your families and your communities.  So in exchange for help, we demanded responsibility.  We said to the auto industry, you're going to have to truly change, not just pretend like you're changing.  And thanks to outstanding leadership like Bob King, we were able to get labor and management to settle their differences.  (Applause.) 

We got the industry to retool and restructure, and everybody involved made sacrifices.  Everybody had some skin in the game.  And it wasn’t popular.  And it wasn’t what I ran for President to do.  That wasn’t originally what I thought I was going to be doing as President.  (Laughter.)  But you know what, I did run to make the tough calls and do the right things -- no matter what the politics were.  (Applause.)

And I want you to know, you know why I knew this rescue would succeed? 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  How did you do it?  (Laughter.) 

THE PRESIDENT:  You want to know?  It wasn’t because of anything the government did.  It wasn’t just because of anything management did.  It was because I believed in you.  I placed my bet on the American worker.  (Applause.)  And I’ll make that bet any day of the week.  (Applause.) 

And now, three years later -- three years later, that bet is paying off -- not just paying off for you, it’s paying off for America.  Three years later, the American auto industry is back. (Applause.)  GM is back on top as the number-one automaker in the world  -- (applause) -- highest profits in its 100-year history. Chrysler is growing faster in America than any other car company. (Applause.)  Ford is investing billions in American plants, American factories -- plans to bring thousands of jobs back to America.  (Applause.) 

All told, the entire industry has added more than 200,000 new jobs over the past two and a half years -- 200,000 new jobs. And here’s the best part -- you’re not just building cars again; you’re building better cars.  (Applause.) 

After three decades of inaction, we’re gradually putting in place the toughest fuel economy standards in history for our cars and pickups.  That means the cars you build will average nearly 55 miles per gallon by the middle of the next decade -- almost double what they get today.  (Applause.)  That means folks, every time they fill up, they're going to be saving money.  They'll have to fill up every two weeks instead of every week.  That saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time. That means we’ll cut our oil consumption by more than 2 million barrels a day.  That means we have to import less oil while we're selling more cars all around the world.  (Applause.) 

Thanks to the bipartisan trade agreement I signed into law  -- with you in mind, working with you -- there will soon be new cars in the streets of South Korea imported from Detroit and from Toledo and from Chicago.  (Applause.) 

And today -- I talked about this at the State of the Union, we are doing it today -- I am creating a Trade Enforcement Unit that will bring the full resources of the federal government to bear on investigations, and we're going to counter any unfair trading practices around the world, including by countries like China.  (Applause.)  America has the best workers in the world.  When the playing field is level, nobody will beat us.  And we're going to make sure that playing field is level.  (Applause.)

Because America always wins when the playing field is level. And because everyone came together and worked together, the most high-tech, fuel-efficient, good-looking cars in the world are once again designed and engineered and forged and built -- not in Europe, not in Asia -- right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

I’ve seen it myself.  I’ve seen it myself.  I've seen it at Chrysler’s Jefferson North Plant in Detroit, where a new shift of more than 1,000 workers came on two years ago, another 1,000 slated to come on next year.  I’ve seen it in my hometown at Ford’s Chicago Assembly -- (applause) -- where workers are building a new Explorer and selling it to dozens of countries around the world. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I'm buying one, too.

THE PRESIDENT:  There you go.  (Laughter.) 

I’ve seen it at GM’s Lordstown plant in Ohio -- (applause)  -- where workers got their jobs back to build the Chevy Cobalt, and at GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit -- (applause) -- where I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line -- even though Secret Service wouldn’t let me drive it.  (Laughter.) But I liked sitting in it.  (Laughter.)  It was nice.  I'll bet it drives real good.  (Laughter.)  And five years from now when I’m not President anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself.  (Applause.)  Yes, that's right.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  I know our bet was a good one because I had seen it pay off firsthand.  But here’s the thing.  You don't have to take my word for it.  Ask the Chrysler workers near Kokomo -- (applause) -- who were brought on to make sure the newest high-tech transmissions and fuel-efficient engines are made in America.  Or ask the GM workers in Spring Hill, Tennessee, whose jobs were saved from being sent abroad.  (Applause.)  Ask the Ford workers in Kansas City coming on to make the F-150 -- America’s best-selling truck, a more fuel-efficient truck.  (Applause.)  And you ask all the suppliers who are expanding and hiring, and the communities that rely on them, if America’s investment in you was a good bet.  They’ll tell you the right answer.  

And who knows, maybe the naysayers would finally come around and say that standing by America's workers was the right thing to do.  (Applause.)  Because, I've got to admit, it's been funny to watch some of these folks completely try to rewrite history now that you're back on your feet.  (Applause.)  The same folks who said, if we went forward with our plan to rescue Detroit, "you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye."  Now they're saying, we were right all along.  (Laughter.) 

Or you've got folks saying, well, the real problem is -- what we really disagreed with was the workers, they all made out like bandits -- that saving the auto industry was just about paying back the unions.  Really?  (Laughter.)  I mean, even by the standards of this town, that’s a load of you know what.  (Laughter.) 

About 700,000 retirees had to make sacrifices on their health care benefits that they had earned.  A lot of you saw hours reduced, or pay or wages scaled back.  You gave up some of your rights as workers.  Promises were made to you over the years that you gave up for the sake and survival of this industry -- its workers, their families.  You want to talk about sacrifice?  You made sacrifices.  (Applause.)  This wasn't an easy thing to do. 

Let me tell you, I keep on hearing these same folks talk about values all the time.  You want to talk about values?  Hard work -- that’s a value.  (Applause.)  Looking out for one another -- that’s a value.  The idea that we're all in it together, and I'm my brother's keeper and sister's keeper -- that’s a value.  (Applause.) 

They're out there talking about you like you're some special interest that needs to be beaten down.  Since when are hardworking men and women who are putting in a hard day's work every day -- since when are they special interests?  Since when is the idea that we look out for one another a bad thing? 

I remember my old friend, Ted Kennedy -- he used to say, what is it about working men and women they find so offensive?  (Laughter.)  This notion that we should have let the auto industry die, that we should pursue anti-worker policies in the hopes that unions like yours will buckle and unravel -– that’s part of that same old "you are on your own" philosophy that says we should just leave everybody to fend for themselves; let the most powerful do whatever they please.  They think the best way to boost the economy is to roll back the reforms we put into place to prevent another crisis, to let Wall Street write the rules again. 

They think the best way to help families afford health care is to roll back the reforms we passed that’s already lowering costs for millions of Americans.  (Applause.)  They want to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny your coverage or jack up your rates whenever and however they pleased. They think we should keep cutting taxes for those at the very top, for people like me, even though we don’t need it, just so they can keep paying lower tax rates than their secretaries. 

Well, let me tell you something.  Not to put too fine a point on it -- they’re wrong.  (Laughter.)  They are wrong.  (Applause.)  That’s the philosophy that got us into this mess.  We can’t afford to go back to it.  Not now. 

We’ve got a lot of work to do.  We’ve got a long way to go before everybody who wants a good job can get a good job.  We’ve got a long way to go before middle-class Americans fully regain that sense of security that’s been slipping away since long before this recession hit.  But you know what, we’ve got something to show -- all of you show what’s possible when we pull together.

Over the last two years, our businesses have added about 3.7 million new jobs.  Manufacturing is coming back for the first time since the 1990s.  Companies are bringing jobs back from overseas.  (Applause.)  The economy is getting stronger.  The recovery is speeding up.  Now is the time to keep our foot on the gas, not put on the brakes.  And I’m not going to settle

for a country where just a few do really well and everybody else is struggling to get by.  (Applause.) 

We’re fighting for an economy where everybody gets a fair shot, where everybody does their fair share, where everybody plays by the same set of rules.  We’re not going to go back to an economy that’s all about outsourcing and bad debt and phony profits.  We’re fighting for an economy that’s built to last, that’s built on things like education and energy and manufacturing.  Making things, not just buying things -- making things that the rest of the world wants to buy.  And restoring the values that made this country great:  hard work and fair play, the chance to make it if you really try, the responsibility to reach back and help somebody else make it, too -- not just you.  That’s who we are.  That’s what we believe in.   (Applause.)

     I was telling you I visited Chrysler’s Jefferson North Plant in Detroit about a year and a half ago.  Now, the day I visited, some of the employees had won the lottery.  Not kidding.  They had won the lottery.  Now, you might think that after that they’d all be kicking back and retiring.  (Laughter.)  And no one would fault them for that.  Building cars is tough work.  But that’s not what they did.  The guy who bought --

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  What did they do?

     THE PRESIDENT:  Funny you ask.  (Laughter.)  The guy who bought the winning ticket, he was a proud UAW member who worked on the line.  So he used some of his winnings to buy his wife the car that he builds because he’s really proud of his work.  (Applause.)  Then he bought brand new American flags for his hometown because he’s proud of his country.  (Applause.)  And he and the other winners are still clocking in at that plant today, because they’re proud of the part they and their coworkers play in America’s comeback.

See, that’s what America is about.  America is not just looking out for yourself.  It’s not just about greed.  It’s not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down.  When our assembly lines grind to a halt, we work together and we get them going again.  When somebody else falters, we try to give them a hand up, because we know we’re all in it together.

I got my start standing with working folks who’d lost their jobs, folks who had lost their hope because the steel plants had closed down.  I didn’t like the idea that they didn’t have anybody fighting for them.  The same reason I got into this business is the same reason I’m here today.  I’m driven by that same belief that everybody -- everybody -- should deserve a chance.  (Applause.) 

So I promise you this:  As long as you’ve got an ounce of fight left in you, I’ll have a ton of fight left in me.  (Applause.)  We’re going to keep on fighting to make our economy stronger; to put our friends and neighbors back to work faster; to give our children even more opportunity; to make sure that the United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth.   (Applause.)

Thank you, UAW.  I love you.  God bless you.  God bless the work you do.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

                                                                         END          

A new plan for Prospect Park's loop drive will have more room for bikes and pedestrians and less room for cars.  It will be unveiled tonight at a meeting of the Prospect Park Alliance.

The park's current markings have long caused confusion.   While private cars are only allowed in the park during morning and evening rush hours -- a minority of the time -- the painted markings indicate where bikes and pedestrians are to go only when private cars are in the park.

As a result, the rest of the time -- most of the day, and on weekends and evenings, bike and pedestrian markings are unclear, and conflicts abound.  Cyclists wander into pedestrian lanes, fast cyclists overtake slower ones, and children, who tend to frequent the park during off-hours, have been known to wander into car lanes during the time when cars are in the park.

Last fall, two serious crashes left women with brain injuries.

Under the new plan, pedestrians and cyclists will get more room, and cars will have just one lane, down from two.  But that lane will be for cars 24/7 -- for parks and emergency vehicles during all hours.

Pedestrians -- and child cyclists, will use the lanes closest to the park interior, and cyclists will use the middle lanes.  There will be lanes designated for slower and faster cyclists. The outer lane will be for cars all the time.

The city DOT says reducing the number of  car lanes will add, at most, about 7 seconds to a through trip.

Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club Friday, Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney waxed about how happy he was to see Detroit-made cars. "I drive a Mustang and a Chevy pickup truck. Ann drives a couple of Cadillacs, actually. I used to have a dodge truck, so I used to have all three covered."

The only car President Barack Obama has driven recently was a Chevy Volt. As a Senator, he owned a Chrysler -- which a second-owner placed on eBay for $1 million --  then a Ford Escape Hybrid.

Hat tip to Buzzfeed.com for catching the clip.

 

Child crash test dummies (DOT photo)

It's kind of amazing that they didn't have them before -- but the National Highway Safety Administration now has child-sized crash dummies approximating the dimensions of an 8-12 year old.

In his blog,  DOT Chief Ray LaHood describes the dummies, known as the HIII-10c as "weighing 77.6 pounds and having a sitting height of 28 inches."

AP's Joan Lowy, and  Politico are reporting that House Republicans may back off their controversial support of a measure radically revamping the way transit is funded.

From the AP report:

—A Republican congressional aide says GOP leaders are considering significantly reducing the scope of a bill that was supposed to provide a long-term blueprint for federal transportation programs.

The aide says GOP leaders are weighing three key changes: reducing the duration of the bill to something less than its current 4 1/2 years, cutting annual transportation spending and postponing a controversial proposal to change the way mass transit programs are funded.

The aide asked not to be identified because any changes must still be discussed further among GOP committee chairmen and rank-and-file Republicans.

Seemingly enjoying the fact that neither Rick Santorum nor Mitt Romney supported the bailout of the auto industry, the Obama campaign is out with an ad rubbing it in. "When a million jobs were on the line...every Republican candidate turned their back," the ad says.

An NBC/Marist poll today shows a healthy  majority of Democrats and Independents support the bailout -- and a not insignificant number of Republicans do.

Michigan Republicans select a candidate next Tuesday -- but the real battleground for Obama is November, where Michigan will be a key swing state.

Michigan voted for Obama in 2008, but in 2010 elections went heavily Republican.

Conference bike. (photo: flickr/byronknoll)

On the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. there's a strange kind of meeting space: a seven person bicycle.

"Imagine one person facing forward and then the other six people around a circle," explains Google's Brendon Harrington. "And the way the bike is manufactured and constructed everyone can actually peddle each other all contributing to propel the bike forward. But since they’re facing each other, they can chat with each other, they can share ideas, they can have a team meeting if they’d like."

Pandora, in Oakland, organizes employee bike rides. Foursquare encourages employees to bike to meetings. Etsy's got an in-house bike mechanic.

That's pretty much the way it is in the tech sector these days: companies are in a race to outdo each other on bike-friendliness.

"Biking has become the mode of choice for the educated high-tech worker," says Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at NYU. "The modern office today is not really jsut a work place. It's a play place.  If you go to Mozilla they have pool tables."

At Foursquare's new offices in SoHo, New York (conveniently located on a major East-West bike lane) -- there's a ping pong table and a dart board.

Biking is so-ingrained in the paradigm, that when I asked Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley whether he thought his brand new bike-rack would help attract talent, he didn't understand the question. "It was not an option to be in a building where people would have to leave their bikes outside," Crowley told me.

For him, and other tech CEO's, NOT having a place to store bikes in the office would be like building a suburban campus without a parking lot.

"We talk about Foursquare as being -- as creating software that helps people change the way they experience or use cities. I think bikes do the same thing."

For an audio version of this story, click here.

Here's Google's video on green transportation, with a cameo of the conference bike:

Now that we have your attention, we assure you, we're joking. Only in Portlandia do people move houses by bike.

Because, hey, it's faster -- "We can go through red lights. It's much faster."

And, for the movers, not really work at all. "This is like taking a lunch break. This is like, 'Oh We're touring Portland."

This was last week's episode - a new one's coming tonight.  Any bike jokes you'd like to add?

You can watch the sketch 15:43 in.

Speaking on the public radio show The Takeaway today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seemed pretty happy about his administration's pay-for for the transportation  bill.

Asked if he supported using fossil fuel drilling fees to pay for transportation, as the House has suggested, LaHood said this (about 5:40  into the interview):

"What I support is what the President put out Monday -- paying for transportation using the highway trust fund, and taking the other half from the Iran Afganistan war fund.  The president has been criticized royally for three years  for not putting forth a pay-for, well he did it this year. (italics ours) He’s paying for making progress in transportation. He’s paying for innovation, he’s paying for safety programs. He’s paying for the enhancements  that people all over America want.

LaHood also said the administration remains committed to high speed rail. "We've spent $10 billion -- $10 billion. That's not chump change, that's real money. We have one of the strongest passenger rail programs in the history of transportation."

The proposed budget has about $50 billion for passenger rail over the next six years.

Listen to the full interview here.

(photo by Jesuspower via flickr)

More than 200 16- and 17-year old drivers died in the first half of 2011, the first increase after more than eight years of decline.

From the report by the Governors Highway Safety Association:

"The numbers of 16- and 17-year-old driver deaths in passenger vehicles in the United States were slightly higher for the first six months of 2011 than in the first six months of 2010, based on preliminary data supplied by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Deaths of 16-year-olds increased from 80 to 93 (16 percent). Deaths of 17-year-olds increased from 110 to 118 (7 percent). Overall, 16-and-17-year-old drivers deaths increased from 190 to 211 (11 percent ). Twenty-three states had increases in deaths of 16- and 17-year-olds, 19 had decreases, and there was no change in 8 states plus the District of Columbia. Most of the changes were small.

If this trend continued in the second half of 2011, it will mark a reversal of longstanding yearly declines in teen driver deaths, especially among 16-year-olds....Deaths reached historic lows in 2010: 158 deaths of 16-year-old drivers compared with 508 in pre-GDL 1995; and 250 17-year-old driver deaths compared with 507 in 1995. These are much larger decreases than occurred in other age groups."