Activists Ask Ford to Phase 0ut ICE

San Francisco July 29, 2005; The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday finally released its long overdue 2005 fuel economy report ranking Ford cars, trucks and SUVs as having the lowest gas mileage of any automaker in America while General Motors, Honda and Toyota all posted modest gains in fuel efficiency. The report came on the same day that Congress passed a new energy bill giving US automakers another free ride on fuel efficiency. Supporting longstanding conclusions by environmental and human rights activists, the new EPA report states that fuel economy is directly related to rising gas prices caused by peak oil and global warming pollution caused by tailpipe emissions.

In response to the EPA report, the Jumpstart Ford Campaign is calling on Ford to get serious about breaking its oil addiction by rapidly phasing out production of gas-guzzling internal combustion engines and replacing them with existing alternatives such as gasoline-optional, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) PHEVs would free most drivers from filling up at the pump and when coupled with residential rooftop solar would put Americans on the road to energy independence.

“Ford is America’s oil addict and CEO Bill Ford Jr. oversees the production of a fleet of vehicles that endangers our health, our environment and our national security,“ said Kirsten Moller, executive director of Global Exchange, which in collaboration with Rainforest Action Network launched the Jumpstart Ford campaign in 2003. Since then Jumpstart Ford has been asking that Ford improve the fuel efficiency of its vehicle fleet to 50 mpg by 2010 and to completely eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

“At a time when America in a war for oil with no end in sight, we are seeing no leadership from Washington to reduce our oil consumption, and yesterday’s EPA report confirms that Ford has wasted yet another year at the bottom of the barrel, said Michael Brune, executive director at Rainforest Action Network. “At just 19.1 mpg the 2005 Ford fleet, including hybrids, still can’t compete with the 80-year old Model-T’s 25 mpg.”

“Bill Ford Jr’s broken promises and token hybrids are an insult to the magnitude of the problems caused by our over-consumption of oil,” said Jennifer Krill, director of the Zero Emissions Campaign at Rainforest Action Network. “America is facing an unprecedented convergence of crises caused by our oil addiction. Global oil reserves have peaked; global warming is a reality; and global oil wars are unjust and unsustainable. Ford Motor Company is failing the United States of America on fuel efficiency just when we need them most.”

This story was provided to The Auto Channel by the Jumpstart Ford organization.