Politics

Ralph Nader: John Dingell Was Totally 'Indentured To The Auto Industry'

February 28, 2014, 7:26 AM

Auto safety advocate Ralph Nader on Thursday criticized retiring Rep. John Dingell, a long-time champion of the U.S. auto industry, David Shepardson writes in the Detroit News.

Nader, left, wrote the landmark 1965 book “Unsafe at any Speed” and clashed with General Motors and other automakers, Shepardson notes. He has often been at odds with Dingell over the last 40 years. 

Dingell "was totally and cruelly indentured to the auto industry even though he was from an overwhelmingly safe Democratic district. More than any other lawmaker, Democratic or Republican, he fought to make sure that the auto Goliaths got their way in Congress and at the EPA and the Department of Transportation,” Nader said.

Nader blasted Dingell for “delaying the issuance of the life-saving airbag standard, in opposing noxious emission controls on motor vehicles and, most irrationally, in freezing fuel-efficiency rules for many years. He did this with sheer stubborn willpower and by forging a mutually destructive alliance between the Big Three auto companies — GM, Ford, and Chrysler — and the United Auto Workers.”

But Nader said in a statement that Dingell “did much good and much bad” — citing areas outside the auto industry.

Shepardson reports Nader argued that Dingell’s opposition to higher fuel economy standards helped lead to the near collapse of GM and Chrysler in 2008.

 


Read more:  Detroit News


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