If you don’t get Congressmen John Hall’s email blasts, his latest speaks to green legislation and pressuring oil companies to invest in alternative fuels. Still Hall has been busy on a host of other issues that didn’t make it into his email.
On the occasion of the official bankruptcy of General Motors after taxpayer bailouts and reluctantly partnering with the UAW, Hall renewed his call for an increase of alternative energy, green technology and forward thinking.
Hall quotes GM’s head of Research & Development who wishes he could go back in time (wasn’t that a DeLorean?) to prevent his bosses at GM from killing their own electric baby. Many forget we had a GM plan nearby in Tarrytown that was abandoned in 1996, making the area more sleepy and hollow, indeed.
Hall, in part:
“…all this might have been avoided if technologies that GM had already created had been allowed to flourish. In 1996, GM introduced the first modern production electric car, the EV1, and followed that with the EV1 Hybrid in 1999. Both had a fuel economy equalling 60 miles per gallon. However…these projects were shelved and patents for the battery technology were sold to oil industry giant Texaco, now merged with Chevron, who have so far refused to license or share the designs.”
Hall tied GM’s woes to the healthcare crisis in the U.S., noting GM was “competing with BMW and Toyota and other companies that manufacture cars in other countries with universal health care”, citing “an uneven playing field, and we’re at a disadvantage.”
But Mr. Hall’s email modestly leaves out other recent activities, so I did a simple round-up using Google News. For example, Hall very recently introduced a bill that enables vets with any “enemy combat” duty to qualify for PTSD treatment. Currently, soldiers must procure supervisor and witness affadavits attesting to a specified traumatic event.
Last month, Hall denounced Bush’s “mistaken” war of choice in Iraq while supporting greater diplomacy and economic development in Afghanistan. Another May item details Hall’s attempt to help the Highland Falls school district, losing staff due to cuts that disproportionately affect West Point families because of the area’s unique military demographic. Hall mentioned this in a brief “stairway” pitch to the U.S. Secretary of the Army, but as it happens President Obama nominated a familiar colleague of Hall’s to replace the Secretary, in Rep. John M. McHugh (R-NY).
Hall embarked on a healthcare listening tour, meeting with local providers and professionals who said middlemen profiteers “have become monsters”. He called for a night curfew at a local airport, hosted a panel seeking to develop low-income housing and assist in preventing foreclosures using federal stimulus funds, while also advocating stimulus funding be directed towards clean water projects in the Hudson Valley.
Rep. Hall also endorsed Sonia Sotomayor for the SCOTUS and gave an early endorsement to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Lastly, Hall signed a letter to Obama’s “Car Czar” Steven Rattner, asking why profitable auto dealerships must be closed in the industry’s bankruptcy restructuring. But if this article is accurate, Citibank and JP Morgan Chase are not particpating in the misery shared by UAW workers, GM and Chrysler dealers or taxpayers, securing full cash payback thanks to Rattner improperly directing reimbursement from already paid-in retirement funds, a first that would set precedent allowing corps to raid these previously untouchable funds.
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The news and diaries posted on the Rockland Progressive Dems site are the individual opinions of the members of the Rockland Progressive Democratic Caucus. They appear on this Web site to provide a progressive forum for Rockland County residents. While the Executive Committee of the caucus may edit some of these posts for clarity, length, and accuracy, it does not necessarily endorse the contents of each post. All members of the Rockland County Democratic Caucus are invited to share their viewpoints and comment on those viewpoints on this site.
