Environmental protesters crash Rick Wagoner's keynote
The 2006 L.A. Auto Show had only been officially open to the press for an hour before all hell broke loose at the show's keynote speech given by General Motors CEO, Rick Wagoner. Despite GM's laundry list of green related announcements and reveals this morning, two protestors from Global Exchange stormed the stage during his speech and demanded he sign a big cardboard contract that said the following:
I (RICK WAGONER) CEO of General Motors hereby pledge to make GM the most efficient automotive company in the industry by 2010.
According to Chris Paukert at Winding Road, Wagoner's response was that his speech commited General Motors to that very thing. Other reports say that after the initial stun of seeing people on stage who weren't supposed to be there, Wagoner was smooth and handled the hiccup with grace.
The video above shows the one of the protestors, Mike Hudema, having a healthy debate with Don Fuller from MAWG who also contributes to Kelley Blue Book. Hudema started the discussion by claiming that GM should not have "killed the electric car" because there was a demand for it. Fuller disagrees... repeatedly, over and over again.
[Source: Winding Road]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
RR 4:40PM (11/29/2006)
I would be curious to know how these wackos got to the Auto Show in the first place. Bike? Electric Car? By foot?
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Robert Evans 6:59PM (11/29/2006)
And they wonder why American Automakers are in the hole. They don't and haven't made something that the public wanted and when they did, they killed it. I'll stick to non-american cars till some type of change and design wakeup happens. However I am happy that Saturn is using Opel designed cars. HUGE difference.
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Tim 3:33PM (11/29/2006)
ha, Fullers got a good point, the kid seems to be some stuck up liberal whom is irrationally attacking GM's mileage ratings because some college professor drives some hyprid prius and hates domestic manufacturers. GM may have the lowest average score because it has SO MANY DIFFERENT autos available, a plethora of each market catagory spread over its brands. The kid may have good intentions, but hes dumb as shit and needs to take a debate course.
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MC 3:37PM (11/29/2006)
Activists really need to learn how business works. How can a single company really commit to being #1 at something? GM doesn't know what the average fuel economy is going to be in 2010 for every other carmaker.
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Juan 4:26PM (11/29/2006)
"When hippies attack, next on Fox."
The only thing that pisses me off is Fuller's idea that some liberal college professor is behind the whole thing. Perhaps the problem with American industry is its distrust of smart people.
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ruggels 3:42PM (11/29/2006)
tee hee hee, those damn academics at those crazy colleges, i'm with bush and the rest of them, burn all the colleges! oh and #2, toyota's going to be the NUMBER ONE auto maker soon, they're already the NUMBER ONE producer of hybrid cars... i think someone can commit when they've already got their shit together.
libral bashing aside, the kid's just retarded, micheal moore styles of approach simply don't work. it would have been nice if he actually was aware of the industry and could as more direct questions vs the broken record approach
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TheOne442 9:50AM (11/30/2006)
Pour gas on them, set'um on fire and have them run a mile. Then we will know what kinda mpg he gets and that will be are standard.
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Greg 5:03PM (11/29/2006)
at least he didn't do a Kramer on them
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Alex Nunez 3:59PM (11/29/2006)
When debate-averse talking-point-equipped eco-radicals pull stunts like this, they do more to discredit themselves than anyone else could EVER hope to. Junior got absolutely taken to school by Don Fuller and wound up delivering a shotgun blast to his own cause's foot as a result. Oh, and it's all on tape? It doesn't get much better than this. More please.
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Brad 4:03PM (11/29/2006)
Yeah, the protester is a loser, 2010 is only 3 years away, that would mean GM a massive company that has plans probably going past 2020 would have to redesign everything in their lineup...I'm not even going to continue why that protester is an idiot.
Also, why do protesters seem to think they're going to change a cause by storming a press conference, acting like jackasses and not even trying to have civilized conversation?
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Dave 4:09PM (11/29/2006)
#3 You got your gm trashing post in for the day, do you feel good about yourself?
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Afi K. James 4:19PM (11/29/2006)
I Could care less about either treehuggers nor gas guzzlers, I Care about people and cars and besides both of them are ignorant.
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Steve 5:25PM (11/29/2006)
College professors are in the business of graduating morons like this kid... I think that the reason many professors chose a teaching career is because they couldn't compete in the real world of business. They need to stand in front of a bunch of juvenile-know-nothings who are easily intimidated, and fill their minds with a bunch of garbage... and this kid is what we get for our $80,000 to $150,000 college education investment.
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TrueDis 5:21PM (11/29/2006)
That guy is awesome! Talk about putting the smack down on an ignorant environmentalist.
"You're a moron!"
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kab 4:36PM (11/29/2006)
And there you go, exactly why auto progress is so painfully slow.... why pay attention to the several thousand who bother to sign a petition of sorts when millions of the same rehashed ideas can be sold every year?
You'll only see real advancement in autos when sales actually start plummeting. Until then, status quo.
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Andrew 5:42PM (11/29/2006)
Either way, (regardless of who is right here) healthy debate fosters change, hopefully good change. When you attack someone's character, such as calling them a moron, you lose credibility because you have run out of points on the topic. I think it is good that concerned citizens are able to approach people in a public forum to hold their feet to the fire because that is how results are achieved. However, Hudema should have been more tactful in his approach because his points are lost in translation when he attacks Fuller. I agree with Hudema's argument about improving MPG standards. Afterall, China has higher MPG standards than the US. I am not sure about his electric car claim and I don't have the time to research it. Regardless, rushing the stage wasn't the proper time nor place.
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iQuack 4:44PM (11/29/2006)
Silly nitwit protester whipped into rage by a misguided "professor" who probably never left school or had a job other than teaching some soft, touchy-feely courses--certainly not economics 101.
Too bad so many teachers are leftist fools because the impressionable young end up becoming mindless Democrats like most of the people I encounter here in beautiful San Francisco. But I don't complain about this town because Berkeley is worse.
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Aki 5:00PM (11/29/2006)
"Too bad so many teachers are leftist fools because the impressionable young end up becoming mindless Democrats like most of the people I encounter here in beautiful San Francisco. But I don't complain about this town because Berkeley is worse."
You're from Bay Area too eh?
Being more fair, I would say that there are an equal share of blind clueless liberals as there are blind clueless conservatives. In short, there are stupid people across all political spectrums, social strata, etc.
While I agree that GM focuses too much on gas guzzlers, they're not really that different from Toyota. For some reason, left-wing new age hippies think Toyota is the eco-friendly, I-love-mother-earth corporation with its Prius and Yaris. And then they quickly forget what a monster the Tundra is. They're tools brainwashed by marketing--like the tools that think buying a reskinned German Opel... or a Mazda masquerading as a Ford as being the best way of showing your patriotism.
Let's not forget the latest, "This is our Nation, this is our Truck." Last I checked, my nation isn't in Silao, Mexico.
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uncle john 6:04PM (11/29/2006)
I'll bet this fool goes by the name PAUL on AUTOBLOG and on GM FASTLANE
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John B. 9:21PM (11/29/2006)
Where can I test-drive one of Global Exchange's cars?
And yes, Rep. Dingell will fight any and all legislation to raise the CAFE standard.
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