By the Associated Press, 3/15/2007

WASHINGTON - U.S. automakers and a top union official have pledged to work with Congress to find new ways of dealing with global warming, but declared that their industry could not bear the burden alone.

The leaders of General Motors, Ford, Toyota and Chrysler, along with the head of the United Auto Workers union, made a rare joint appearance before a House subcommittee Wednesday. They stressed that proposed increases in gas mileage standards for new vehicles would be extremely expensive and could have calamitous results.

“This could include the closing of additional facilities and the loss of tens of thousand of automotive jobs,” Ron Gettelfinger, president of the union, said.

But all of the industry leaders, under questioning from the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, vowed to work with the committee to produce regulations to address climate change and consider “new regulatory regimes” beyond the fuel economy program.

Read more in the International Herald Tribune.