I write to urge you to consider the following recommendations with regard to any federal financial assistance that you may offer to the Big Three automakers:



1. Any Federal money  to the industry be linked to substantial pay cuts to company executives;

2. Federal assistance be linked to the rapid phasing out of production of gas guzzlers;

3. Federal assistance be established in phases, with each phase evaluated for compliance before subsequent funding is provided;

4. Incentives for additional federal assistance linked to industry support for significant increases in CAFE standards;

5. Additional federal assistance linked to the acceleration of research and production of smart-grid enabled hybrid vehicles with a staged increase in the mpg over the next 10 years, with a minimum of 50 mpg by 2010 and a goal of >100 mpg by 2016. see: http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid567.php

6. More incentives offered for the development of vehicles conforming to the "hypercar" designs created by Amory Lovins of RMI (see: http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid191.php )

7. Federal assistance incentives created toward industry and lobbying support for car pooling, ride sharing, expanded and enhanced HOV lane usage, etc.





our president-elect has stated:



"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.  We are the ones we've been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek."  Barack Obama



Please consider these and other innovative strategies to ensure that our auto industry is incentivized to look forward, not backward, to become leaders, not foot draggers, as the country deals with multiple intersecting world class challenges such as peak oil, global warming, petro-blackmail, international conflicts, financial instability.



Sincerely,