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When it comes to the Ford Motor Co. and its environmental commitment, it depends on whom you talk to. Ford recently issued an unprecedented global warming report and it was praised by one green group and condemned by others.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which has been "participating in a dialogue" with Ford for several years, had the thumbs up. Kevin Knobloch, president of UCS, said Ford "deserves praise for highlighting the need to act early to avert dangerous levels of global warming and for linking the challenge to its own operations and products."
But Sierra Club Global Warming Director Dan Becker said the report "is another example of corporate rhetoric trumping reality." Becker blasted Ford for failing to "set any concrete global warming reduction goals by which to judge the company’s progress in cutting emissions." Other groups joined in, including the Rainforest Action Network, which opined, "If Bill Ford wants to put his company back on track, he’ll need to hire more engineers and fewer lawyers and lobbyists." Bluewater Network (Bill Ford’s harshest critic, which has depicted him as a lying Pinocchio in magazine ads) wants to see more action, fewer reports.
Is it possible for both sides to be right? I think so. For an auto company to even issue a global warming report after decades of knee-jerk hostility to any environmental cause is reason enough to applaud. But, as the green groups point out, the rhetoric has to be matched with real action. That means building cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars and, for Ford, reversing its policy of suing states (including California) that regulate greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
Ford now has hybrid versions of the Escape and Mercury Mariner on the road. That’s a good start. The Sierra Club, in fact, agreed to help promote sales of the 33/29 mpg Mariner. "Say goodbye to frequent fill-ups," reads the Mariner promotion. "Say hello to a greener earth."
I saw prototype Ford engines modified to burn hydrogen during a recent visit to the Argonne National Laboratories in Illinois. An intriguing proposition, though not as clean as the hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles the company also has been developing (though research has gone on a back burner).
I tend to think Bill Ford is sincere in his environmental beliefs and he tries to steer the company in the right direction. I also think he’s up against a corporate environment that favors the short-term profits SUVs and other gas guzzlers have up until recently brought in. I really wonder what he’s thinking up there in Dearborn as the catcalls, jeers and occasional praise come his way from the green side of the aisle.
Meanwhile, I had a nice talk with General Motors’ Beth Lowery, the company’s environmental vice president. GM, with as many challenges being green as Ford, is working in California to help develop an infrastructure for the forthcoming "hydrogen highway" advocated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. To drive on it, the company will have a drivable prototype of its 300-mile range Sequel fuel-cell car in the first half of 2006.
The Saturn Vue Green Line "mild hybrid," coming for model year 2007, will feature a belt alternator system to reduce fuel consumption by an estimated 10 percent. A "dual-mode" full hybrid system developed with DaimlerChrysler and BMW will be on big GM SUVs, the Tahoe and Yukon, at the end of 2007. GM hopes to have its "displacement on demand" system, which cuts off two cylinders of its big V-8s when they’re not needed, on two million vehicles by 2008. Again, it’s a start.
