Obama says he would act fast on $25 billion auto loans
OREGON, Ohio (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama said on Tuesday that as president he would demand that up to $25 billion in government loans targeted for distressed U.S. automakers be distributed quickly.
Obama told reporters that General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC find themselves in a unique financial situation, having been hard hit by rising gasoline prices this year and the global credit crunch.
"If I were president right now, I would call in the secretary of energy and say 'get this thing moving' because these companies need help now," Obama said.
Obama's comments were likely to resonate in the presidential battleground of Ohio, which has almost 100,000 autoworkers and, like neighboring Michigan, has been squeezed by the car industry downturn.
Automakers and their allies in Congress from Michigan and Ohio have been pressing the Energy Department to accelerate the loan program, which was approved by lawmakers last month. Automakers are eligible to use the money to retool plants and take other steps to make more fuel efficient cars.
Detroit has always viewed reasonably quick access to the money as crucial to their turnaround plans, but worsening cash flow and mounting credit problems in recent weeks have added new urgency to obtaining the financing.
The Energy Department has said it would complete the regulatory framework for issuing the loans by December, as required by Congress. However, the agency has said additional environmental and other administrative hurdles will likely push the timeline further out for approving financing for qualified projects.
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and John Crawley; Editing by Tim Dobbyn; editing by Carol Bishopric)
