DETROIT – Despite speculation that President Obama would also
include a trip to the crisis ridden city of Flint during his visit to Michigan,
his stop ended at the Auto show in Detroit.

Obama did send an official for his team to Flint while he was
scheduled to appear at the Auto Show.

Obama started his speech in Detroit by addressing the water
contamination crisis that has forced Republican governor Rick Snyder to
apologize.

Obama
pledged his support to the community. “If I were a parent up there, I
would be beside myself that my kid’s health could be at risk,” he said.

Obama
also touched base on another unfolding crisis ­– Detroit Public Schools.
Hundreds of teachers protested outside the auto show following a sickout that
closed over 90 percent of the district.

Obama’s
short visit to Dearborn also included a lunch with Mayor Mike Duggan, where the
school issue was discussed.

During his speech, he stressed on the importance of the auto
industry. He has held out his bailout of General Motors and Chrysler during the
U.S. recession as examples of tough decisions he made that paid off both for
the economy and the environment.

“The auto industry here in the United States has figured
out that we can make more fuel-efficient cars that reduce the carbon pollution
that is causing climate change, and make a profit – and put more people to
work,” Obama told a crowd at a United Auto Workers Union center for
workers at GM.

But car companies are still churning out gas-guzzling sport
utility vehicles to meet consumer demand, going against Obama’s hope that
higher fuel-economy models would win the day.

Sales of SUVs rose 16 percent in 2015, while car sales fell 2
percent. Although new SUVs are more efficient than prior models, they still
burn more gasoline than cars.

About 59 percent of U.S. vehicle sales last year were sport
utility vehicles, pickup trucks or other big vehicles, up from 54 percent in
2014.

Low gas prices have boosted the trend. A Ford Motor Co plant in
Michigan that Obama visited a year ago is ending production of small cars in
2018 and is expected to switch to SUVs to help meet soaring demand.

The White House noted the industry was on track to double fuel
efficiency and cut emissions by half by 2025.

During a stop at the North American International Auto Show,
Obama sought to give a push to electric cars.

Obama joked that he was in town to browse for a new car himself
because he had to give up his limo, affectionately known as “The
Beast,” when he leaves office next year.

He sat in the driver’s seat of a 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, an
all-electric car the White House said could travel about 200 miles (320 km) on
a single charge. The president declared it a nice-looking car.

Electric vehicle sales fell last year by 6 percent to 115,000,
and the administration has said it would not meet its goal of getting 1 million
plug-in cars on U.S. roads by 2015. To date, about 400,000 electric vehicles
have been sold.

Without naming names, the president pounded Republicans for
opposing the bailout and trying to outdo each other by “peddling
fiction” about the state of the U.S. economy.

“When one says our economy is terrible, the next says it’s
terrible, and on fire, and covered in bees!” he said.

“These are the same folks who would have let this industry
go under,” he said.