Follow Up: Toyota, Friend of Foe?
October 24th, 2007 by Vihar Sheth | Posted in TransportationOn October 15 I posted an article about my exchange with Toyota regarding its support of a certain fuel standards bill over another. I was motivated to write in to the company after receiving an email from the Natural Resource Defense Council. Apparently Toyota’s canned response to inquiries following NRDC’s initial email prompted NRDC to communicate further with its constituents, of which I am one. The following is a letter I just received from the group:
Thanks again for taking action along with more than 80,000 other online activists who are appalled at Toyota’s shameful stance on improved gas mileage.
By now, you will have no doubt received an email from the car company in which it claims to “share your interest in strengthening automotive fuel economy.” Don’t be fooled. Here’s the situation –
The Senate has already passed a strong bill that would raise the fuel economy standard to 35 mpg by 2020. With your support, we’re fighting to get that measure included in a final energy bill that will soon be voted on by both houses of Congress.
But instead of supporting that greenest of measures, Toyota is attempting to derail it by supporting the Hill-Terry bill. The Hill-Terry bill would only require an increase in gas mileage standards to 32 mpg by 2022.
The difference between these two bills may not seem all that significant, but in reality, it’s huge. The bill passed by the Senate is more than twice as effective as the Hill-Terry bill, which would waste millions more gallons of gasoline per day and could produce hundreds of millions more tons of global warming pollution.
We’re going to keep the pressure on the self-styled “green” automaker until it gets in gear and supports the tough fuel economy measure that has already passed the Senate. Please take a moment to tell your friends who are tired of corporations that market themselves as environmentally conscious even as they undermine the future of our planet.
We’ll be sure to keep you updated on this crucial fight for cleaner cars.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
NRDC Action Fund
I generally trust NRDC on these issues but I’m still trying to figure out what Toyota’s motivation is in going against the grain here. Their initial response did point out that the Hill-Terry bill maintains separate requirements for cars and trucks, which makes sense. Though, I’m guessing if trucks alone could get the mileage per gallon that cars already get, pollution from automobiles would drop considerably. As I said before, only time will tell how this ends up.
