is this less aggressive or more aggressive by nhtsa? in their response to a mysterious fire on a brand-new automobile when there are only a few thousand in the field? >> as we speak, there are about, excuse me, mr. chairman, about 8,000 -- >> right, and i was correct, there were about 4,000 when this occurred. you've sold -- you may be making 400 a day, but you're selling far less than that. 4,000 or less, in june/july. 8,000 or so now. the question is, when this occurred, the director has said, administrator has said, this is what we do. it takes six months to do it. this is just what it is. in your experience, would you consider this to be an impressive response, an average response, or a little slower than average when it comes to when it lights up your phone and your people come running in and you have emergency meetings and the shit hits the fan and alligator is around you and it's all you can focus on even though you're board and everybody else had something in mind are for you that day. as you compare it to other events that happ

by taking this on comments at nhtsa thought to ensure the safety of the public. response to the investigation gm proposed to mitigate intrusion by adding reinforcement caller around the battery compartment. technical team reviewed and tested the remedy and confirm that there was no intrusion into the battery compartment, no leakage of coolant and no post-impact fire. as a result, we concluded the agency's investigation had found no discernible defect trend. it continues to believe that electric vehicle show great promise as a fuel-efficient off shin parr and drivers. based on the available at data nhtsa does not believe the volt or other vehicles pose a greater risk of fire than gasoline-powered vehicles. in fact all vehicles that have some risk of fire an event and in event of a serious crash however specific attributes should be made clear to consumers law enforcement emergency response communities and tow truck operators. nitze has been working with department of energy with assistance from the national fire protection association and others to develop guidanc

i'm concerned with your role and nhtsa's role. this is the battery, how one handles that and treats that, that really is kind of the essence of what we're talking about for safety. i think we should all take this opportunity. we learn from mistakes. we learn from shortcomings. we look at situations that we debate like the way they worked out, and we figure out what we did wrong and we move on. so i think that's what a hearing like this is about. i guess my question to you is were the automobile safety engineers aware of the dangers posed by the lithium ion battery? >> at what point, madam manager? >> after the crash occurred on the 12th, may 12th, when the car sat after the crash. >> i understand, thank you. thank you, vice chairman, for clarifying that. we, the car was put through a normal new car assessment program side-impact test. when we finished with those particular tests and get the results, the car, the hull, is then sold for salvage. that car was stored in the normal process in the yard. thinking that there was going to

out there that some kind of way president obama, or somebody from the obama administration came to nhtsa and said don't put out certain information. because we want gm to be successful. or they have inflated the cafe standards with all of this, which is ridiculous. so i'm going to ask you a few questions, want to you clear up a few things. what happens here, mr. strickland, our lives are short. and damage can be done to somebody sitting in that chair and they don't even know it's been done. or your wife will be looking at you on television tonight and saying, you know, they really made you look bad. i just want you to know, calm down, you don't look bad.

this hearing today is not about the chevy volt, but about nhtsa. a great partnership, and that told you early on that my dad started in 53 after being a parts maker in a warehouse. my relationship has never been a quality, always been clear and transparent. i know which side of the table i said. the mother manufacturer and distributor. actually sell these. you looked at these things, my gosh. if it really isn't government-run, if the government really is at arm's length away from this, the sharing of disinformation or how we will market these different messages, how does that happen if it's not that way to iraq and how does nhtsa sit there and say, no, no, no predated the same way we always do. as a matter of fact, they didn't . again, payroll products. and the stand. nothing to do with angels, but it does have to do with the we're trying to do. we can compete with anybody in the world that any product at any level. our success has been driven. producing cars in mass quantities the people want to bite. one advocate those two e-mails, if you're real

letter from dan ackerson who was here giving testimony on the investigation of post crash fires with nhtsa. so that's what happened over the last day. i was very proud of the way -- so was everybody else in gm i think and our -- and our volt owners have gotten information from them and in the way that the company is operating. we can always be better. the volt was basically validated by every agency out there on crash tests when we went to production, five-star ratings and everything. so it clearly had safety leadership. what we have done with an extraordinary test that, you know, again, punctures the battery, dumps a ton of cool end on the battery and lets it set for quite a while and rotates it over a long period of time. not something we have ever seen in the real world, but we can make the cars and trucks better so we have. that's why there was really no recall per se, but rather an action by gm very quickly to do something to make the car even safer. my kids drive the car. my two girls and my son, drive it every day. we put three gallons of gas in it a year. driven about 6,000 miles s

the incident will be part of the nhtsa's hearing into the overall safety issue of safety during aviationvents. those scheduled to testify include a pilot from san mateo. the information gathered will help the ntsb during crash investigations. >>> roads in houston are flooded thousands have lost electricity after powerful storms plowed through the area. several inches of raindropped over a two hour period on the drought -- stricken area yesterday, roads flooded and drivers stranded possible tornado also damaged roof annual at a shopping mall. no immediate reports of injure climatologists say with above normal rainfall this winter it won't stop texas from having one of is driest periods in history. >> just like us. dry period. we thought we might get rain today that didn't work out. >> mainly going to be along the coast now just mainly sprinkle that could fall anywhere and won't amount to much of anything. don't worry about the umbrella, let it gather more dust. >> cannot find it, it is under so much dust. >> going to have to clean the closet to find it, to get winter clothes out, heavy cl

think it is strange that the transportation secretary ray lahood called the volt was safe while the nhtsarying to figure out if the volt was actually save. >> did mr. lahood know at the time he gave answer to the question that there was a formal investigation going on. >> was very aware? >> our transportation secretary knew you were questioning about the vehicle an comments about the vehicle saying it was fine. that was given, that answer was given six weeks before you formally said it was fine? >> the secretary knew of all the facts and the details as whether they posed an implement -- >> don't you think that is? at least unusual. >> no, it wasn't unusual. secretaries are requested questions about all the time. he did it for toyota. >> so you can see, martha getting heated on the hill this morning. during a calmer moment administrator strickland said he would drive a volt and would drive his mom around in a volt too. martha: all right. well that is interesting. we'll see how his mom feels about that. at the heart of all this, peter, question of whether or not the administration made some

this hearing today is not about the chevy volt, but about nhtsa. a great partnership, and that told you early on that my dad started in 53 after being a parts maker in a warehouse. my relationship has never been a quality, always been clear and transparent. i know which side of the table i said. the mother manufacturer and distributor. actually sell these. you looked at these things, my gosh. if it really isn't government-run, if the government really is at arm's length away from this, the sharing of disinformation or how we will market these different messages, how does that happen if it's not that way to iraq and how does nhtsa sit there and say, no, no, no predated the same way we always do. as a matter of fact, they didn't . again, payroll products. and the stand. nothing to do with angels, but it does have to do with the we're trying to do. we can compete with anybody in the world that any product at any level. our success has been driven. producing cars in mass quantities the people want to bite. one advocate those two e-mails, if you're real