Wilmington -- As one of Delaware’s leaders who has spent close to 30 years working to keep our Chrysler plant competitive, I am deeply disappointed by the company's decision to close its Newark Assembly Plant at the end of this year. Although well-telegraphed, the news was painful to me and to plant employees, retirees and their families.

Chrysler is a 60-year-old manufacturing icon in Delaware.

Our Newark Assembly plant has played a vital role in the success of Chrysler Corporation. The Newark facility has provided tens of thousands of good-paying jobs for Delaware autoworkers, and provided even more jobs through many area businesses dependent on Chrysler for their livelihoods.

As state treasurer, governor and as a member of our congressional delegation, I have worked to make sure the decision makers at both GM and Chrysler knew of our state’s stellar workforce and its commitment to productivity, quality and innovation.

In 1980, as state treasurer, I negotiated the state’s loan to Chrysler that – along with a handful of other states and the federal government – helped put Chrysler back on track for more than a quarter century.  In 1992, as a new governor, we were faced the potential closing of our GM plant, but turned that around through a public-private partnership that engaged in a successful, bipartisan rescue effort.

Today, however, the state of the industry and the global financial crisis are more than we can easily overcome here in Delaware.

Throughout the years, our Delaware congressional delegation has been especially attentive to the needs of the domestic auto industry, working with Chrysler, GM and Ford on national policies to better compete in the global marketplace, and to help their employees received every resource available during difficult times. That attention has paid off, too.  Delaware is the only state along the Eastern Seaboard in which a domestic auto assembly plant is located today.

Here in Congress, we have brought to bear government policy and funding – in the form of a $25 billion loan program – to stem the tide of job losses and plant closures, and to help our nation’s auto plants retool in order to produce energy-efficient vehicles to meet consumer demands and to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

It was only last year that the Congress passed the landmark Energy Independence and Security Act to dramatically increase the average fuel efficiency of our cars, trucks and SUVs from 25 to 35 miles per gallon by the year 2020.

And, just last month, we succeed in getting included in an energy tax package, a $7,500 tax incentive to encourage more consumers to buy plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The is no question that the employees of the Newark plant are among the best in the world.  Their hard work and sacrifices made it one of Chrysler’s most productive plants.  Earlier this year, the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen won the top quality award for SUV’s from J.D. Power and Associates.  The Chrysler employees have done everything asked of them and more.

Along the way, Chrysler made a number of serious mistakes.  The company did not plan for a day when high gas prices would lead to greater demand for more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Americans have been gravitating to more fuel-efficient vehicles in recent years.  And with the dramatic spike in oil prices earlier this year, American consumers were buying mainly energy-efficient vehicles, leaving the larger, gas-guzzlers on auto lots nationwide. 

When you lay on top of those mistakes a financial meltdown like we haven’t seen since the Great Depression, the die was cast for our Newark plant and – heaven forbid – maybe for Chrysler.

Sadly, we all learned last week that by the end of this year, 1,029 hourly employees and another 96 salaried employees will lose their jobs when the Newark plant closes. I understand the plant will stop production on Dec. 23, but employees will be paid through Dec. 31.

So as we look ahead, my focus turns to the thousands of men and women whose lives will be directly impacted by this tough business decision made in difficult economic times.

The next step is to get to work to help retrain plant workers so they can quickly move into new jobs.

I have often used this analogy: If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day, if you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.

In much the same way, we must help displaced workers get the retraining they need, along with career counseling and an extension of unemployment benefits.

Right now we are exploring ways to include these some of these measures in a second stimulus package that could pass the Congress as early in mid-November.

We must continue to help our auto manufacturing better compete in this global economy.

We also must help our highly trained auto workers find real opportunities with good-paying jobs – and including new green jobs in the months to come.

I support the creation of more “green collar” jobs – high-paying positions in businesses whose products and services directly improve environmental quality.

We have buildings that need to be weatherized, solar panels to be installed, and wind turbines to be erected. We have communities that need more public transit systems, and we will have smart electricity grids and nuclear plants that will need engineers and electricians.

The Congress must have a comprehensive, national approach that not only signals to corporate America that new green jobs are a priority, but signals to the world that the United States will be a leader.

I have enough faith in American technology, ingenuity and know-how, to believe we can create hundreds of thousands of new green jobs, and create green products and technology that we can export around the world.

To quote Thomas Edison: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes along wearing overalls and is disguised and looks a lot like work.”

Today, the Chrysler employees, their families and the Newark community need the full support of federal, state and local officials.

I stand ready to do whatever I can to help our workers find new jobs while we continue to work to restore our auto industry’s global competitiveness for years to come. 

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