It’s Getting Hot In Here

At the New York Auto Show, CEO’s from the car companies were fielding questions about how the Supreme Court ruling yesterday would affect their business. What did Bob Lutz of General Motors have to say?

“All of us standing here right now — anybody who exhales is polluting like mad,” Mr… Lutz said. “If we have CO2 limits, I think we should all contribute, and we’re all going to have to train ourselves to breathe fewer times per minute.”

I’d like to think that maybe he just had one-too-many at the auto show buffet, but since GM is still waging lawsuits trying to absolve them from their role in global warming, I think he might be serious. In California, automakers are suing the state for simply trying to protect the air quality for it’s citizens. And in Vermont, automakers (including GM) are trying to get the court to hide emissions data from the public. It’s a disgrace that automakers try denying that global warming exists, then argue that C02 isn’t actually a pollutant, and then that we ALL emit C02 and cars burning fossil fuels by the megaton are no different than breathing, and then that the public shouldn’t even have a right to know the facts behind auto emissions.

I hope people saw the banner that Freedom From Oil activists dropped inside the show. Even Toyota’s attempts to paint themselves as the “green” automaker are shallow. Prius sales make up a small fraction of their overall sales – and they too are suing to stop C02 regulations and building bigger and bigger trucks. Toyota’s ad campaign for the Tundra is ridiculous. “The Truck That’s Changing It All”? I’m sorry, but they were asking for it…