White House Denies Delaying Chevrolet Volt Fire Announcement

by Derek Kreindler

January 16th, 2012 12:18 PM

white house denies delaying chevrolet volt fire announcement

Obama! Socialism! Taxes! Jesus! Faith! Guns! Now that you’re paying attention, it’s time for our regularly scheduled programming. A Detroit News article claims that NHTSA is denying any interference on the part of the White House with respect to the Chevrolet Volt fires that resulted from government crash test procedures.

News of the fires only came to light in November, despite the fires occurring in June. NHTSA head David Strickland claims that the White House wasn’t informed until September. A letter sent to three Republican congressmen states that

“shortly thereafter informed the Executive Office of the President regarding the June fire and NHTSA’s test plans to determine if the fire indicated that there is a risk of post-crash fires in Chevrolet Volts. No one from the Executive Office of the President requested or in any way suggested that NHTSA delay public release of information related to the Volt fire,”

GM previously announced a fix for the Volt’s battery pack and leaky coolant, which is said to have caused the fires. GM has yet to restart production of the Volt since the line went idle in December, and won’t be able to apply the new safety measures to the Volt until some time in February of this year.

#AmericanCar #Chevrolet #ChevroletVolt #ElectricCar #GeneralMotors #GM #HybridCar #Obama #Safety #Sedan

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5 of 14 comments

Lokki on Jan 16, 2012

Add me to the list of those who think that this article doesn't belong in TTAC. IN THEORY this is a site about CARS. Posting this article will do nothing towards that. It's political commentary, and of the worst kind - purely intended to cause a flame war. Derek (yes you!) is trolling. SHAME! I'm no Obama fan but I'll go elsewhere if I want political comment. Things devolve into political partisanship too often here as it is. If you want to ban me for criticizing the writer, so be it. If this continues I'll be leaving anyhow.

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- Pch101 on Jan 16, 2012
  Derek (yes you!) is trolling. SHAME! You're going too far with that. He's relaying a story from a major daily. However, I would question the process that turns this into "news" for that major daily, which then leads to it showing up elsewhere. As noted, there are several hundred vehicle fires per day, some of which kill people. But we don't talk about all of those. As of today, there are already nine vehicle recalls just for this year alone (and we're only sixteen days into it.) http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/recalls/latestRecalls.cfm But we don't talk about all of those, either. As far as I can tell, there are more than forty members of the congressional Automotive Caucus. But there isn't an article every time that one of its members issues a press release. At the very least, we should question the process that causes some of these things to be converted into articles and blog pieces, while the others go ignored. I don't see anyone flipping out over the caps on Ford Escape brake master cylinders, even though they are being recalled and even though brakes are very useful for stopping a car, which contributes to their safety.
  
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Mvlbr on Jan 16, 2012

Where's the GM witch hunt?

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Adub on Jan 16, 2012

The story came out of the Detroit News, not exactly Fox News. Is it newsworthy? No. They tried making news out of nothing. Maybe there should be a front page headline "Obama Denies He Beats His Wife!!!" Nobody claimed he did, but the denial will sell paper.

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Carlson Fan on Jan 17, 2012

Yawn. Then there's the 89,000 Mini Coopers that are being recalled for engine bay fire risk. 4 REPORTED cases in the wild, which means there has been more. But that's not news. Next a condo high-rise will burst into flames and the Volt parked down the street two blocks away will be implicated! And you can bet FOX news will be there to break the story first!......LOL

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