Let's Divert Green $$$ to Aid Autos: White House

The White House urged Congress today to prop up the Big Three automakers with $25 billion in federal funding—and nix environmental provisions attached to that money, the Wall Street Journal reports. Approved last year, the dollars were designated to help carmakers convert to more fuel-efficient vehicles. Now they can "accelerate much needed funds to the auto companies," the White House said.

The announcement heated up a bipartisan battle scheduled for next week in Congress. Democratic lawmakers want the Treasury to back the Big Three with money from the $700 billion bailout plan, a move the White House blasted as "a path that will only lead to partisan gridlock." (More Big Three stories.)