Tom Carper: “I will. Mr. President, I was talking about the visit of last week with the CEO of one of our major three automakers. The…”

“I will. Mr. President, I was talking about the visit of last week with the CEO of one of our major three automakers. The point I was trying to make is the automakers don't have to come up with cars that get 52 miles per gallon or 50 miles per gallon, but if they have a fleet of 60 percent trucks and 40 percent cars in 2020, they are going to have to do better, and better is 42 miles per gallon. Our leader, Senator Reid, was talking about an event here today where some vehicles were on display. I think they were jerry rigged--maybe it was Ford Escape and some other vehicles, maybe Priuses--in order to get very high mileage, I think he said 170 miles per gallon. We don't need cars that get 170 miles per gallon by 2020 to make this standard of roughly 35 miles per gallon for the fleet. We don't need cars that get 50 miles per gallon. But in this case, Company X--which is a real company, it turns out-- is working toward 42 miles per gallon and they would meet the expected requirements that would be set for them. I said to my visitor last week, the CEO who was visiting me, You have an obligation to your shareholders and you have an obligation to your employees to try to get the best deal out of this that you guys can be proud of and maximize your profits. I said: As a Senator who cares about the economic development and job creation in my State, I want you to be profitable. I want you to be successful. So I feel some obligation too.…”