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 @ISIDEWITHNewsDaily DiscussionTradeRepublicanDemocratsRepublicansChinaElection 2024•••2yrs ago

Political Divisions Damage U.S. Auto Industry

The U.S. auto industry needs regulatory certainty from politicians in Washington and the back and forth as the White House changes hands doesn't help, but the adoption rate of electric vehicles will continue to grow, Ford Motor's (F.N), opens new tab executive chairman Bill Ford said on Wednesday.

The CEO of Ford said when he talks with politicians in Washington, he gets very different viewpoints from the two parties.

He said Republicans question the need for EVs, saying the U.S. sector trails China and they don't want to use Chinese technology.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing the industry to make more EVs and asking what they can do to accelerate the process.

The Biden administration last month handed Detroit automakers a major win by easing proposed rules that would have forced them to scale back production of gas-guzzling vehicles or face billions of dollars in fines.

Bill Ford said the transition to EVs will be gradual and determined by consumers. "We're not shoving anything down anybody's throat," he said.

The growth rate on EV sales has slowed, but globally they are being adopted quickly and Ford will follow even as it hedges it bets with its gasoline-powered and hybrid electric vehicles, he said at a Detroit Free Press event outside Detroit.

While not commenting on the race between U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and former president Donald Trump, a Republican, Bill Ford said he wishes the country would pick a path so the industry can plan better.

"Our planning timeframe is…  

It lost nearly $4.7 billion on its EV business in 2023 and projected it will lose $5 billion to $5.5 billion this year.

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11 Replies

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

Given the financial losses Ford has faced in transitioning to electric vehicles, do you think political uncertainty is to blame, or are there other factors at play?

 @9LMB7XKPeace and Freedom from North Carolina  commented…2yrs2Y

Most news are lies or just share the same information as other news

 @9LM6SVY from Montana  commented…2yrs2Y

I do not think Evs are the solution to emissions problems in the US, and I think other problems should be dealt with before cars are even considered. If someone was to look up what the leading emissions problems are in the US, cars is not the only factor by a long shot.

 @9LM5XQY from North Carolina  commented…2yrs2Y

Combustion engines will stay for a long time and we are not ready to switch to full electric.

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

Considering the different viewpoints from political parties on EVs, how do you think these divisions impact the speed at which the U.S. can compete in the global auto industry?

 @9LM62KP from California  commented…2yrs2Y

coal power plants put out way more co2 than all of the cars driving now

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

How do you feel about the statement that the auto industry needs regulatory certainty to plan for the future, and the impact political indecision has on this?

 @9LM763Z from Washington  commented…2yrs2Y

The fact that we do always have to face the future and in order to help it be less stressful is being able to plan our future before it gets out of hand.

 @9LLFVPR  from Oklahoma  commented…2yrs2Y

I think that what happens in the present is important because it effects the future.

 @9LM6WQG from Texas  commented…2yrs2Y

how the future and the impact political

 @ISIDEWITHasked…2yrs2Y

Do you believe that the constant change in political power in Washington makes it harder for companies like Ford to innovate and commit to EVs?

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2yrs2Y

U.S. Students Slide in Math, Science Test Scores

U.S. scores were no better than when the tests were first given in 1995. In math, the recent declines wiped out years of gains. American science scores have fallen since 2015, although the latest drops from 2019 weren’t statistically significant.The results come as President-elect Donald Trump has criticized America’s education system and pledged to abolish the federal Education Department. Wednesday’s release did come with a slice of good news, though: U.S. students still score above international averages, which include countries with a range of economic levels.Some other countries’ scores also declined since before the pandemic, but U.S. rankings slid comparatively on some measures, falling to 24 out of 45 education systems in eighth-grade math and 15 out of 63 in fourth-grade science.Countries whose performance moved ahead of the U.S. included Finland in math, England in science, and Poland for both subjects in fourth grade.High-scoring countries included Singapore, Japan and England. Officials say it is difficult to determine why some places excel and others struggle. The quality of a country’s schools, as well as other factors like poverty, can influence test performance. Carr said some countries use curriculum that is more closely aligned with the TIMSS exams.Even as U.S. schools have long since returned to normal from Covid-19 closures, educators struggled with new challenges. More teachers have left the profession. Student misbehavior and absenteeism jumped. “Coming out of Covid, parents and students got comfortable with the idea that it’s OK to stay home,” said Suzan Harris, a middle-school principal in Butts County, Ga. Chronic absenteeism rates have improved recently, but remain elevated compared with prepandemic figures, according to an American Enterprise Institute compilation of state data.In the years before the pandemic, national exams showed that school achievement was already stagnating or declining.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1yr1Y

Biden bans new offshore oil drilling along most of US coastline

President Joe Biden announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the US coastline on Monday in a move designed to bolster his environmental and climate legacy as he prepares to leave office.The order will protect 625mn acres of ocean on the US east coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, as well as portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska, the White House said on Monday.“My decision reflects what the coastal communities, business and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said.The executive action will not prevent oil and gas companies obtaining leases in the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico, areas that produce almost 15 per cent of the nation’s oil supplies. Nevertheless, the move is expected to complicate the policy agenda of incoming president Donald Trump, who has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and boost US oil production, even though it is already at a record level.The Trump transition team said it was a disgraceful decision designed to exact “political revenge on the American people” and the incoming president said he would immediately “unban” Biden’s prohibition on new offshore drilling.“I have the right to unban it immediately . . . we can’t let that happen to our country. It’s our greatest, it’s really our greatest economic asset,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview on Monday.Biden’s action will probably be challenged by the oil industry in court and face pushback from Republicans in Congress. But overturning the order could prove challenging and may require an act of Congress, according to legal experts.Biden is using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to protect the areas from drilling — the same mechanism which former president Barack Obama used previously to ban offshore drilling in some Arctic and Atlantic waters in 2016.In 2019, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by former president Donald Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful.

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