By Bryce G. Hoffman
Detroit News
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_5735660
Dearborn, Mich. – In one of the strongest statements on climate change ever made by a U.S. auto industry executive, Ford Motor Co. chief executive Alan Mulally said Monday that global warming is real, man-made and caused in part by the auto emissions.
“The vast majority of data indicates that the temperature has increased, and I believe the correlation and the analysis says that is mainly because of the greenhouse gases keeping the heat in. You can just plot it with the Industrial Revolution and the use of all of our resources,” he said.
Mulally made the comments during a telephone press conference called to announce the promotion of Susan Cischke, Ford’s vice president of environmental and safety engineering, to the newly created post of senior vice president in charge of sustainability, environment and safety engineering. The move, Mulally said, was meant to underscore the importance of this issue to Ford’s corporate strategy.
“It’s about sustainability, it’s about mobility, it’s about safety, it’s about (being) stewards of our environment,” he said.
Also Monday, General Motors Corp. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the U.S. government needs to take a Manhattan Project-like approach to creating a national energy policy, bringing the best minds in the country to bear on the issue of energy sustainability and independence.
Ford has drawn fire in the past for reneging on environmental promises, like then-CEO Bill Ford Jr.‘s pledge to build 250,000 hybrids annually by 2010. Ford retracted that commitment less than a year later.
