Corporate Social Responsibility: What Would Reagan Do?
By Tom Borelli
September 12, 2007
Page 2 of 2
Also in 2000, Ford put dollars behind its CSR effort. In announcing the company's $5 million sponsorship of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) project at Princeton University, Mr. Ford said, "Corporations should be and could be a major force for resolving environmental and social concerns in the 21st century."
CMI's research agenda is "to develop and evaluate methods for keeping carbon emissions, the main contributor to greenhouse warming, out of the atmosphere...." By supporting CMI, Ford fueled the notion that carbon dioxide from its vehicles is a major cause of global warming.
With corporate dollars, CMI effectively whipped up global warming fears. The following is a list of news headlines that CMI touts on its website: "Alarm Sounded on Global Warming, Researchers Say Dangers Must Be Addressed Immediately", "Study says U.S. Shouldn't Wait to Curb Carbon Emissions", "Gas Guzzlers" and "Declare War on Global Warming."
The political response to fossil fuel fears that Ford helped generate is evident in California. In 2002, the state passed a law limiting greenhouse gas emissions from new vehicles sold in California in 2009. In 2006, California sued automakers over global warming because greenhouse gases caused billions of dollars in damages.
Global warming regulation is now on the national political stage. Recently, presidential candidate John Edwards called on Americans to give up their SUVs and said, "We are the worst polluter on the planet."
By 2003, Ford's allies in the environmental movement turned on the company because business needs prevented the company from meeting its aggressive goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving gas mileage.
Despite the failure of its CSR strategy Ford and the other major carmakers recently joined the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) -- a coalition of corporations and environmental special interest groups that are calling "on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions."
Perhaps the automakers believe the carbon dioxide war is lost and regulations are inevitable so they should help author the terms of surrender.
Conceivably, if they were not driving under the influence of CSR, the industry would form their own organization to fight regulations advocated by USCAP. This group, with a meaningful advertising budget, could educate the public on the numerous scientific holes in the man-made global warming theory and the huge economic cost that the consumer will bear.
To paraphrase Reagan, there is a risk in fighting. In retrospect, however, how could the consequences have been any worse for the auto industry? In this case, "retreat leads to the final ultimatum" meaning fewer sales, lower profitability and lower employment.
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Thomas J. Borelli, PhD. is the editor of FreeEnterpriser.com, a shareholder activist and a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research . The opinions expressed are his own.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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