November 23, 2008
| 03:14 PM (EST)
As CEO of General ChrysFordCo, President-Elect Obama Can Use the Bailout to
Spearhead Renewable Energy and Rebuild America.
It's all but a foregone conclusion that a government bailout of the
auto industry will happen, to save the millions of direct and indirect
jobs generated by the Big Three. But unlike his predecessor who bailed
out the banks, the new President ought to make sure that those
receiving tax dollars use them in an accountable way to power a viable
industry.
Buried in this debacle are possibly the seeds of a powerful wave
that can regenerate not just the auto industry but the entire nation,
from cities to farms. We can learn from, and follow, the example of how
another major country saved its economy by transforming its automobile
industry.
In the early 1980s, Brazil, like all other developing countries of
the day, was having its economy destroyed by skyrocketing oil prices.
Most countries chose to borrow money to buy the oil they needed, but
Brazil took a different tack. Its government mandated that General
Motors and other companies making cars in Brazil produce vehicles that
were to be powered by alcohol-fuel engines. The government's thinking
was that alcohol fuel can be produced domestically and inexpensively,
avoiding the crushing payments for foreign oil.