Updates on three very significant developments:
1. the postponement of any decision about federal
loan guarantees to the Detroit Three; 2. the
replacement of Rep. John Dingell by Rep. Henry
Waxman on the House Energy & Commerce Committee;
and 3. President-Elect Obama's extraordinary
message on Climate Change -- this last one
followed by a comment from Bill McKibben and a
message from the transition about how you can learn more and get involved.

(Shortly after it goes out on email, this posting
will also be viewable at
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html -- there
you can add CalCars-News to your RSS feed.)


AUTOMAKERS AND FEDERAL SUPPORT: After two days of
House and Senate hearings, at several points it
appeared a deal had been reached Thursday, led by
several Senators, to "re-allocate" the $25B
already appropriated and destined for re-tooling
of old factories to produce more advanced (mostly
plug-in) vehicles. But Representatives, including
Speaker Pelosi, opposed giving up that objective.
Automakers were told to come back with details
and plans to convince the lawmakers the money
will be well spent, that they have figured out
how to survive under daunting market and sales
conditions as they evolve -- and how they'll
build the far better cars we all expect. (Too many news stories to cite any!)


KEY HOUSE COMMITTEE GETS NEW FUTURE-ORIENTED
CHAIRMAN: All energy, climate change and health
care legislation passes through the House Energy
and Commerce Committee. Since 1981, whenever the
Democrats have had a House majority, it's been
chaired by Rep. John Dingell, 82, the
longest-serving member of Congress. In his
career, he was responsible for landmark health,
labor, social welfare and environmental
legislation. But for decades, he has blocked most
proposals that the auto industry opposed,
including measures on fuel efficiency and climate
change. In a secret ballot, House Democrats voted
137-122 to replace him with Rep. Henry Waxman of
California -- an ally of Speaker Pelosi and a
worthy counterpart to Barbara Boxer, who chairs
the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee. It's hard to overstate the impact this
will have on prospects for climate change legislation.


PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA'S MESSAGE ON CLIMATE
CHANGE: Barack Obama intends to hit the ground
running. He has sent the entire world an
unequivocal signal of his personal support and
his administration's commitment to re-engage and
help lead global efforts on climate change.
Here's the press release and the transcript of
his short speech to what the transition website
describes as "more than 600 climate change
leaders from across the country and around the
world convened in Los Angeles today for the
opening sessions of the Global Climate Summit, a
2-day event arranged by California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger to break gridlock on the
issue ahead of next month's United Nations
Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland."

For Immediate Release: November 18, 2008
President Elect Barack Obama to Deliver Taped
Greeting to Bi-Partisan Governors Climate Summit

WASHINGTON ­ President-elect Barack Obama will
deliver a surprise message by video to the
Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in
Los Angeles, California this morning. Obama will
discuss his commitment to marking a new chapter
in America's leadership on climate change that
will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.

The hosts of the Summit include Governors of
states who have been at the forefront of the
climate debate: Governors Rod Blagojevich (IL),
Charlie Crist (FL), Jim Doyle (WI), Arnold
Schwarzenegger (CA) and Kathleen Sebelius (KS) as
well as representatives of approximately 22
other states; government officials from
Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, India,
Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, the UK and others.


REMARKS AS DELIVERED (view the entire video at
http://www.change.gov/NewChapteronClimateChange )

Let me begin by thanking the bipartisan group of
U.S. governors who convened this meeting.

Few challenges facing America ­ and the world ­
are more urgent than combating climate change.
The science is beyond dispute and the facts are
clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are
shrinking. We've seen record drought, spreading
famine, and storms that are growing stronger with
each passing hurricane season.

Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil,
if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our
economy and threaten our national security.

I know many of you are working to confront this
challenge. In particular, I want to commend
Governor Sebelius, Governor Doyle, Governor
Crist, Governor Blagojevich and your host,
Governor Schwarzenegger ­all of you have shown
true leadership in the fight to combat global
warming. And we've also seen a number of
businesses doing their part by investing in clean energy technologies.

But too often, Washington has failed to show the
same kind of leadership. That will change when I
take office. My presidency will mark a new
chapter in America's leadership on climate change
that will strengthen our security and create
millions of new jobs in the process.

That will start with a federal cap and trade
system. We will establish strong annual targets
that set us on a course to reduce emissions to
their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050.

Further, we will invest $15 billion each year to
catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean
energy future. We will invest in solar power,
wind power, and next generation biofuels. We will
tap nuclear power, while making sure it's safe.
And we will develop clean coal technologies.

This investment will not only help us reduce our
dependence on foreign oil, making the United
States more secure. And it will not only help us
bring about a clean energy future, saving our
planet. It will also help us transform our
industries and steer our country out of this
economic crisis by generating five million new
green jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.

But the truth is, the United States cannot meet
this challenge alone. Solving this problem will
require all of us working together. I understand
that your meeting is being attended by government
officials from over a dozen countries, including
the UK, Canada and Mexico, Brazil and Chile,
Poland and Australia, India and Indonesia. And I
look forward to working with all nations to meet
this challenge in the coming years.

Let me also say a special word to the delegates
from around the world who will gather at Poland
next month: your work is vital to the planet.
While I won't be President at the time of your
meeting and while the United States has only one
President at a time, I've asked Members of
Congress who are attending the conference as
observers to report back to me on what they learn there.

And once I take office, you can be sure that the
United States will once again engage vigorously
in these negotiations, and help lead the world
toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.

Now is the time to confront this challenge once
and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial
is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes
are too high. The consequences, too serious.

Stopping climate change won't be easy. It won't
happen overnight. But I promise you this: When I
am President, any governor who's willing to
promote clean energy will have a partner in the
White House. Any company that's willing to invest
in clean energy will have an ally in Washington.
And any nation that's willing to join the cause
of combating climate change will have an ally in
the United States of America. Thank you.


BILL MCKIBBEN REACTS: The noted
author/journalist/activist is co-founder of
StepItUp and more recently of 350.org. Aong with
www.WeCanSolveIt.org and www.1sky.org,
www.350.org is a new climate change organization;
the name refers to the need for the world to
return to 30 parts per million of CO2 in the
atmosphere. McKibben wrote supporters, "Breaking
News: Obama Commits U.S. to Climate Talks:"
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=JQja%2FsmfSi4E8M0tFtb85y\
PuWLFSj99i>
President-elect Obama just outsmarted us.

He found a way to accomplish the goal we set out
for him, re-engaging the United States in the
U.N. climate talks, without having to get on a plane.

Speaking via (low-carbon) video to a gathering of
world leaders, Obama said that the continued
existence of George Bush as president would
prevent him from making the trip to Poland next
month for the next round of international talks.
But he'd clearly heard the call for his presence
-- including the nearly 50,000 invitations you
sent in from every corner of the world that came through the 350.org website.

Here's a key passage from Obama's video statement...

Although we wanted Obama to go to Poland in
person, we're overjoyed by the words above - -
and pleased to see that he's pioneering
fossil-fuel free ways to communicate with the rest of the world!

Why is Obama's statement such a big success?
Because for eight years the U.S. has been
blocking genuine progress on an international
climate deal. Now, in the middle of economic
crisis and with plenty of other issues to
address, President-elect Obama took the time to
make a special statement committing the U.S. to
positive engagement in the upcoming negotiations.
His commitment will be seen as a major
breakthrough by countries around the world.

You made that possible through your commitment to
this campaign. Politicians don't say "special
words" unless prodded, and your tens of thousands
of invitations and letters to the editor did just that.

And now the task of injecting 350 ppm into the
negotiations is front and center. Obama may not
be going to Poland, but some of the crew behind
350.org will be--we'll keep you in the loop as
world leaders negotiate our future. Together,
we'll keep building this movement. Follow this
link to check out some of the beautiful 350
actions from India, Chile, Costa Rica, and the
USA:
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=aPDTKY6eMAXFmc6993FieSPu\
WLFSj99i>http://www.350.org/obama-commits

Look for more email updates in the weeks to come
to find out how we can keep this movement building.

Good work, Bill McKibben and the 350.org team


MESSAGE FROM JOHN PODESTA OF THE OBAMA-BIDEN TRANSITION TEAM

62 days. That's how much time we have left to
prepare for the Obama-Biden Administration that
will bring the change Americans demanded so strongly in this past election.

President-elect Obama has set a high bar for the
Transition team: to execute the most efficient,
organized, and transparent transfer of power in
American history. As a co-Chair for the
Transition, I want to tell you about a few steps
we've already taken to achieve this goal.

First, we adopted the strictest ethics guidelines
ever applied to any transition team.
President-elect Obama pledged to change the way
Washington works, and that begins with shifting
influence away from special interests and
restoring it to the everyday Americans who are
passionate about fixing the problems facing our country.

Opening up the Transition means listening to your
ideas and stories and providing a window into how the process works.

To give you a look at how we're approaching some
of the nation's most pressing issues, we filmed
this meeting of our Energy and Environment Policy
Transition Team and interviewed team member Heather Zichal.

Watch the video and submit your ideas on energy
and the environment:
http://www.change.gov/page/s/energyenviro -- just
the video is also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOMc1coT9oY

President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect
Biden have set an ambitious agenda, and we are
going to make Change.gov a source of information,
as well as a place to participate in the
decisions being made about your government.

Since the decisions we're making affect all
Americans, we're counting on citizens from every
walk of life to get involved. You can help us
right now by making sure your friends and
neighbors know about www.Change.gov and give their input, too.

We're continuing to develop new ways to open up
the process, and we'll keep you posted along the way.

Thanks, John

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
http://www.calcars.org
http://www.calcars.org/news-archive.html
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --