Of all the domestics, Ford can be credited with being the most vocally green automaker headquartered in North
America. Some environmental activists, however, are claiming that the Blue Oval is more talk than action and groups
like Global Exchange and the Rainforest
Action Network have been coordinating a 2-year old campaign called
Jumpstart Ford to pressure the company to improve its vehicles impact on
the environment.
The linked article details some of the
complaints against Ford, which for the last six years has actually ranked at the bottom of the EPA?s average all-fleet
fuel efficiency rankings. The groups site Honda?s top fleet rating of 25.1 mpg versus Ford?s 19.5 mpg as an example of
Ford being left in the dust by a real green machine. Honda, however, has the benefit of a much larger stable of
hybrids, which receive somewhat inflated EPA ratings due to the nature of the agencies rating method, and no
gas-guzzling V8-powered large trucks and SUVs.
Ford has publicly pledged to produce 250,000 hybrids by 2010, but that?s not good enough for the greens, either. The
activists demand Ford achieves a 50 mpg fleet rating by 2010 and end tailpipe emissions by 2020. They might as well ask
for the return of Jimmy Hoffa?s body while they?re at it. Ford doesn?t balk at those figures, but rather envisions a
more realistic timeline that sees an end to tailpipe emissions by 2050.