The begining of the end of Michigan

The United States Senate Commerce Committee declared war on Michigan. Today, the Senate Commerce Committee passed a resolution which would, if it were to take immediate effect, would ban all but six cars currently on sale in the United States - the Honda Civic Hybrid, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla, Toyota Prius, Nissan Altima Hybrid, and the Toyota Camry Hybrid. They tossed in a measure which would entail spending $50 million a year for "advanced battery research" which, while desperately needed, will cost far, far more than $50 million a year. Why does Congress not understand the economics involved? General Motors spent $1 billion developing the EV1. The sort of changes that Congress hopes to get out of the auto industry - delivering vehicles with similar performance to today's vehicles with dramatically increased fuel economy - will require that sort of investment on a wide variety of platforms. The cost of development is going to be incredible. The cost to the American consumer is going to be dramatic. Already, hybrid vehicles cost thousands of dollars more to produce without ever increasing fuel economy enough to compensate. Diesel engines are significantly more expensive and other techniques haven't proven themselves out.

One question - why hasn't John Dingell gotten out in front of the Senate with a House bill that addresses this? His House committee is the one which should produce legislation that could have cut off this bill before it started, implementing changes in other, more pressing and more economical areas, that will have more effect and cost less than destroying the auto industry.