The GM and Chrysler bailouts provide an extraordinary opportunity for real change in our country. We can simultaneously save jobs and guarantee production of more energy-efficient transportation by converting car-company manufacturing space.

President Barack Obama should demand that the auto companies convert space to manufacture of non-automotive products capable of producing alternative energy equipment. Wind turbines and solar panels, along with energy-efficient light rail cars, subway cars and buses to improve our public transportation system, could be produced in the converted space.

Similar conversions were established during the 1940s as a result of the leadership and innovative approach of Walter Reuther, the president of the United Auto Workers union. Bucking significant resistance from auto companies, Reuther persuaded the Roosevelt administration in 1940 to force our auto companies to shift from domestic manufacturing to making military equipment, particularly aircraft. His plan capitalized on the skills of automotive workers and available space for manufacturing large equipment.

Conversion to passenger and freight trains and to alternative energy equipment such as wind turbines and solar panels is a practical way to make use of the skills of autoworkers and available production space. Currently, a Ford motor plant in St. Paul, Minn., is doing just this, with the help of McAllister University. Such a process with GM and Chrysler would help save jobs and create a robust environmental and mass transit manufacturing base in this country. It is estimated that this approach would result in the employment of more than 2 million workers. Universities such as Cornell should be required to partner with our auto companies to help rebuild our economy and save jobs.

The extraordinary financial meltdown affords the public an opportunity to demand an innovative federal investment in GM and Chrysler. Our government must force these companies and their suppliers to abrogate a "business as usual" model in favor of a broader and sweeping new business plan that redresses their failed approach, addresses new industrial needs for energy and environmental products, and helps to upgrade our public transportation system.

We need the leadership of President Obama, Congress and progressive union leaders to demand what Walter Reuther did during WWII: to stand up and be innovative, and to get our country and the auto industry to invest in our future rather than our past.

Will we have the courage and foresight to do this?

Peter Lazes is a senior extension associate at the ILR School in New York City. He directs strategic planning for unions and programs for economic transitions.