A fresh approach to looking at business.
Not too long ago, Ford signed a pretty revolutionary deal with Terrapass, offering buyers of Ford cars the option to "neutralize" their CO2 emissions by paying a little extra for a Terrapass. It's a big leap forward in terms of creating options for people to reduce their carbon footprint.
The trouble is, Ford is a donor to the Competitive Enterprise Institute who recently produced a series of bizarre advertisements that essentially claim CO2 induced global warming is a hoax. Terrapass (who has an excellent blog by the way) promptly called them on it. Stating publically that nothing short of a wholesale dismissal of the ads and a public withdrawl of support to CEI would be the appropriate response from Ford.
Ford did in fact responded, stating they do NOT (their capital letters) support the message of the CEI ads and did NOT fund them, but stopping short ot explaining what their relationship with CEI is. Well, it's not quite the response that Terrapass deserves, but it's better than nothing. It's certainly more responsible than GM's gas subsidy plan.
But couldn't Ford do better? They've clearly outlined their stance against global warming and if they don't take a stance against CEI then their entire effort, including the Terrapass campaign risks falling to the wayside as yet another exposed greenwash. And if they do denounce CEI, then they would be seen as a better, more responsible leader, and I personally would be (slightly) more likely to buy their vehicles. They might even change some minds at CEI.
Most likely somebody with Ford has a DC office and is full time dedicated to giving money to PACs and Think Tanks and such, as CEI is but one example. The rules of today's "K-Street" game are that you give money to Administration's favorite causes or you get no pull whatsoever on issues that matter to you when they come along. I don't know this for a fact but it is a reasonable hypothesis for explaining why closure was not reached.
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