General Motor's Vice Chariman Bob Lutz calls global warming a "total crock of shit."
Watch in today's federal budget as the Conservatives will likely give millions of taxpayer dollars to GM and Ford in Ontario. So far the federal and provincial governments have given more than $1,000,000,000 to Detroit automakers in Ontario -- why? Supposedly to protect jobs -- and GM, Ford and Chrysler have laid off 16,000 workers!
Back to GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. Is it any wonder then that GM has the highest average CO2 emissions of any of the world's major car companies? Is it any wonder the company has fought tooth and nail any effort to mandate improved fuel efficiency?
From a Globe article yesterday (Feb 23): "As part of a campaign against higher fuel economy standards, Mr. Lutz wrote in a 2006 blog posting that forcing auto makers to sell smaller cars would be "like trying to address the obesity problem in this country by forcing clothing manufacturers to sell smaller, tighter sizes."
Lutz also said hybrid cars make no economic sense. Hmmmmm let's look at the evidence hybrids are saving Vancouver taxi drivers $1,500 a month in fuel costs. Sounds like good economic sense to me. I bought my Prius in June 2004 -- and over the first 10 years I estimate I will save what I paid for the car in gas savings. Sounds like a good deal to me.
You want to know what really makes no economic sense -- well Bob, it's driving a GM produced Hummer when gas is $1.50 a litre in the summer of 2008 as CIBC reports have predicted. Now that what makes no economic sense.
Guess what? Bob's in charge of GM's low carbon car strategy. I guess they really, really serious about the low carbon strategy by putting Bob in charge. What were they thinking?
Why then are we giving this company hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies in Ontario?
For Globe article see http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080223.TICKERMAIN23/T...
See also http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/02/22/gms-bob-lutz-global-warmin...