At a press breakfast this morning, GM CEO Rick Wagoner dismissed Bob Lutz' comment that "global warming is a crock of shit." "The comments weren't coming out of our company," said Wagoner [via Detroit News]. "The data is pretty clear that the temperature on the earth is rising. There's all sort of debates as to why but we've clearly come down on the side it makes sense for us to put our business in a position where we can participate proactively in reducing the amount of (carbon dioxide) emissions." At the same time, Wagoners said the General would keep fighting to prevent California and 16 other states from eventually getting to impose their own strict tailpipe emissions standards. Such standards could force passenger cars to average 43.7 mpg by 2016. "I don't think it's the right thing for the country," Wagoner said. Wagoner went on to blame the gas – electric plug-in Volt's development "issues" on the fact that the United States "is way behind, way behind" in battery technology. That's right folks, GM blames the feds. What a crock.
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Lutz, Wagoner and other CARB naysayers would do well to look at a picture of the sky in modern-day Shanghai or Beijing. That is what LA, Sacramento, and other border-state cities would look like without CARB (CA Air Resources Board) regulations.
I’m sure Wagoner’s predecessors said the same things when mileage and emissions standards were introduced to stem the smog, yet cars are powerful, comfortable, and safe while achieving better mileage than ever before. Frankly, I think whatever GM believes is irrelevant. They can’t seem to make a profit on anything but gas-guzzlers, so f’ em.
“The data is pretty clear that the temperature on the earth is rising. There’s all sort of debates as to why but we’ve clearly come down on the side it makes sense for us to put our business in a position where we can participate proactively in reducing the amount of (carbon dioxide) emissions.” At the same time, Wagoners said the General would keep fighting to prevent California and 16 other states from eventually getting to impose their own strict tailpipe emissions standards.
I mean… really? With a straight face? Really?
Johnny- yeah, that was my reaction reading the piece. My guess is that advanced cognitive dissonance coping skills are standard training at GM.
Well, this is the company that lobbied against seat belts when they were first introduced. It takes them a little time to get used to new ideas, is all.
Anything that encourages and/or forces the sale of small, higher mileage/lower polluting vehicles hurts the Detroit 3 and helps Toyota and Honda (or at least hurts Toyota and Honda significantly less than the domestics). The choice for the government here is basicly to either bankrupt the domestic auto industry or save the planet.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
Global warming is so “global”…that indeed it is affecting the temperature of:
Mars!!
Yes, things are warming…and it is solar in nature!!
There is more CO2 released each Autumn from decomposing leaves than all the automobiles put together (annualized).
That’s what happens when politicians get involved…the SEIZE upon something which has an ounce of truth to it …then they bastardize it completely to THEIR benefit!
Global Carbon Taxes anyone?!?! They are working on it at this very moment. How do you…the average American…like the idea of a non-elected body (the United Nations) sticking their hands in YOUR pocket??
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2007-02/2007-02-28-voa2.cfm?CFID=211776585&CFTOKEN=14295862
Wake up people…stop being pushovers and dolts!!
Anything…ANYTHING to expand government.
Al Gore is a complete phony. And the fact that he earned a “Nobel Prize” for his film based upon junk science ought to tell you something…that it’s Not just the politicians of the United States .
It’s Global all-right…Global Government
PS, the very fact that you can’t turn on the television, turn on the radio, read a newspaper, or walk by the magazine rack …without reading about the Catastrophe(!!) of “GLOBAL WARMING”…ie, fear mongering, well…that ought to tell you that yes, its all based upon the same tactics of “terrorism”…”Al Queda”…
…that is, scare the living HELL out of the average citizen to where they really DO think a Global Carbon Tax (instituted by a non-elected body) is a GREAT IDEA!
Please people, Wake UP!
Please educate yourself…stop believing what mainstream media shoves down your throat:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4302904746669786959&q=the+great+global+warmins+swindle&total=199&start=10&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Grab a Miller and spend 1hr 16 minutes learning the “Truth about Global Warming”…after all, we on this website supposedly embrace the “Truth”, right?
Hey Kwanzaa,
Go here for a non-biased take on Global Warming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
The IPCC which is quoted in that article is anything BUT non-biased…nor is the “United Nations Framework on Climate Change”.
But of course, some people would rather bow down and worship these haughty “organizations” over well-respected climate scientists….individuals who have spent their entire careers researching the matter.
You sir, have been “institutionalized”…institutionalized in your outlook and institutionalized in your mode reasoning and thinking.
Congratulations!!
Now open up your wallet please….it’s for the common good!
Just remember, Orian…
Regardless of how much industry they snuff out, no matter how much of a tax burden they place upon industry as well as individuals…no matter how much propaganda they warp your minds with…
NONE of it will help the retreating polar caps on Mars.
(I’m sorry for that “inconvenient truth” there bubba).
Wow…just wow. I present you un-biased (as in neither for or against global warming) using some of the same data you told me to look at and you go off on a tangent.
You sir have drank a little too much of the anti-global warming Kool Aid.
I’m what you would call a fence sitter on the subject – I don’t believe ALL of the hype, but I also believe that 7 billion and counting humans on this planet are contributing to a temperature increase in one way or many ways. You’d be incredibly naive to think otherwise.
The 4 stages of death start with denial, eh?
Back to car talk, I remember back in the day, in 1970s, GM was said to have paid more lobbying against emissions controls in cars than Volvo spent engineering and installing feedback fuel injection with cats and O2 sniffers, partnering with Bosch. when the dust settled you had a volvo that ran cleaner and smoother than the Detroit stuff.
What we sholdd have had is Detroit leading the way with superior products. But Nooooo.
Never before, or since, does Detroit do this. Its all cheap looking but expensive to produce spin, and seeking out the lowest common denominator in the market and grudgingly giving up market share to higher quality competition.
What I can’t figure out is with the greenhouse effect adding all this heat to the Earth why is it so cold and snowing so much? Only the smartest scientist and bureaucrats in the world seem to be able to understand this.
Leaving aside the issue of whether global warming is driven by human activities, this entire episode makes me wonder just how GM is really being run.
On a topic such as this, it is important that the corporation either speak with a unified voice, or just keep quiet. When a highly visible member of top management says this kind of stuff, and then the top dog contradicts him in another statement, it looks as though the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing.
For Mr. Wagoner to say that Mr. Lutz’s statements “weren’t coming out of our company” is plain nonsense. Mr. Lutz wouldn’t receive nearly as much attention if he weren’t in his present position at GM. His statement received wide media play precisely because of his current position with GM. Like it or not, Mr. Lutz is perceived to be speaking on behalf of GM, so if GM doesn’t like his statements, someone should either fire him, or explain to him exactly how corporate communications are supposed to work, and just why it is not a good idea to make that type of statement in the future.
Kwanzaa,
Read the Wiki entry for “The Great Global Warming Swindle.” Very entertaining.
bluecon:
Actually any person even remotely familiar with the literature can tell you that it is AVERAGE global temperature. It has nothing to do with what happens in your local trailer park.