Here in LA, we’re slicing through the hype and keeping our eye on the prize. The automotive CEOs might be back at the podium making promises about sustainability, but on the streets of LA and throughout the country, hardly anything has changed in the past year:

• Fuel economy of the cars available to American drivers remains at the bottom of the barrel.
• Automakers are still fighting tooth and nail again fuel economy and tailpipe global warming laws.
• I still can’t walk into a show-room and buy a plug-in hybrid.

To kick off the week, we’re juxtaposing Ford, Toyota, and GM’s eco-promises with their continued participation in the lawsuit against California’s groundbreaking tailpipe global warming law. At this morning’s keynote speech to kick off the LA Auto Show, we put Ford CEO Allan Mulally in the hotseat by confronting him one-on-one and demanding he respond to a clever Freedom From Oil-produced USA Today front page wrap targeting Ford’s greenwashing.

Eco-cars (like the Cadillac Escalade hybrid, um what?) cannot just be an effort to deflect building criticism on the auto industries’ continued and stubborn reliance on gas guzzling, high global warming emissions vehicles. As I read the news this week and see extreme drought and wildfires in California, oil spills fouling the shores of San Francisco and the Black Sea, and oil prices approaching $100 a barrel, I’m more offended that usual (and that’s saying a lot) by the business as usual shenanigans of the automakers. It is high time for the automakers to stop saying what they can’t do and start giving American drivers the oil-free, zero-emissions vehicles we want and deserve.

Our showcase action of the week is going to do what non-violent direct action does best, “show not tell” the automakers what we want from them. On Thursday, while the automakers are inside the convention center making excuses and promoting concepts, we’ll be carrying out a high-speed one day conversion of a Prius hybrid to a plug-in hybrid (we’ll post more details on Thursday). With our action and our messaging, we’ll be asking the automakers what is taking them so long to get the cars America deserves on the road—if grassroots engineers can make a plug-in in a day, what’s holding back the auto industry?

UPDATE 1: Check out the photos on RAN’s Flickr site!

UPDATE 2: The AP wrote a great article about RAN confronting Toyota today!

Interestingly enough, this global cabal Includes companies like Citigroup, Ford Motor Company, and Toyota. Unfortunately, while these companies are asking for regulation by 2012, they are missing opportunities today to shift their business practices and start immediately and dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Citi could agree to not fund TXU, thereby keeping 78 million additional tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere. And by leading the industry to build a fleet of cars that get 40mpg, Ford could help reduce auto industry emissions by 106 million tons of CO2 per year. And Toyota (and other automakers) could pull out of the lawsuit that is questioning the state of California’s right to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

What are they waiting for?

From the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s:

We feel it’s time to reward those drivers who have made the effort to buy a small and efficient vehicle. How many times have you passed a little electric G Whiz, Smart Car, Toyota Prius or Honda Hybrid and thought, “thank goodness someone is doing something different”, and yet you didn’t leave them a message to say “thanks for caring about our future”.

Well, this Wednesday morning you can. We’ve designed a colorful Valentine (Be My Valentine!) which you can print, fold, cut and leave on a neighbor’s fuel efficient car.

Instructions:
You’ll need access to a color printer. The file prints 2 cards onto one A4 sheet – If you are printing at work and the printer has a duplexer unit then you’ll need change the settings to print front and back. Otherwise you’ll need to print the front, and then put it back in to print the back. Don’t forget to use recycled paper!

Once you’re done printing, just fold in half and trim up with a scissors or a paper cutter.

If it’s rainy, you may want to leave the card in a clear plastic bag under their windscreen wiper, so it doesn’t get soggy, or better, hand it to them when they leave for work.

Let us know how it goes!

Last week, AutoNation became the first major car dealer to join Plug-In Partners, calling on automakers to manufacture plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and make them available to American customers. PHEVs are hybrid vehicles that dramatically reduce our dependence on oil by plugging into the grid to recharge. PHEVs achieve up to 100 mpg and offer you, the driver, a real-world solution to high gas costs, poor air quality, climate change and over-reliance on oil. AutoNation is linking to Plug-In Partners’ website where customers can place “soft orders” for PHEVs.

So, let me give you the inside story on why this announcement is so important.

1. The Jumpstart Ford campaign and all its supporters made this happen! For three years, the Jumpstart Ford Campaign has been enlisting the support of Ford dealers to help persuade Ford Motor Company to stop pushing gas-guzzling cars, trucks and SUVs. In the past year, a series of grassroots activities focused on Ford dealers in general and AutoNation in particular.

This incremental victory is a classic example of how corporate campaigning can leverage market forces within an industry to bring about change. First, the campaign sent a letter to AutoNation, explaining our concerns and laying out what we would like the company to do. Unfortunately, we received no response, so the local group in Fort Lauderdale/Miami went to visit a local dealership to increase the pressure a bit.

AutoNation stilll didn’t take us seriously. We really wished we didn’t have to take our actions to the next level, but climate change, oil impacts, and air pollution from Ford’s cars are just to urgent for us to wait patiently. So, on May 4, Jumpstart Ford activists, along with Emerge Miami, Democracy for America, Greenpeace Miami, and members of the Green Party, blockaded the entrance to Maroone Ford Dealership in Fort Lauderdale. Following this bold action, AutoNation agreed to sit down and negotiate with the campaign. Finally, after 4 months of ongoing conversations, AutoNation became the largest dealership group in the country to actively help break America’s oil addiction.

2. AutoNation has huge leverage within the auto industry. AutoNation is what is commonly referred to as a “megadealer.” That means they are a corporation that owns multiple dealership franchises across the United States. In fact, AutoNation is the largest megadealer in the US (with 283 dealerships), not to mention Ford’s largest dealer. So, when AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson says that PHEVs are “a vehicle that I believe the American consumer will not just consider, but buy. We look forward to selling it” it’s a message that Ford and the rest of the auto industry can’t afford to ignore.

3. This accomplishment shows that our Adopt a Dealer and megadealer strategy is working. By talking to Ford’s dealers and focusing pressure on the most powerful dealership groups, we are changing the debate within the auto industry and creating the momentum to break our oil addiction.

There is no longer any doubt that Ford Motor Company, once a symbol of American innovation, is caught in a downward spiral of oil addiction that is devastating the company’s economic future. In this context, the moment is more important than ever to invite Ford’s dealers to join the campaign and send a message back to Detroit.

While American consumers flock to more fuel efficient brands to cope with sky-rocketing gas prices, Ford is deflecting the consequences of its poor planning onto its workforce and dealer network. While new CEO Allan Mulally accepted an annual salary package of nearly $35 million, Ford announced it would lay off a third of its workers, accelerate plant closures, and significantly downsize its dealer network — particularly in the “problem areas” of California and the Eastern Seaboard. In other words, auto dealers – who are already struggling to make ends meet as the number of vehicles sold-per-dealership continues to decline – are being forced to pay for Ford’s short-sighted choices.

Please join us in inviting these dealers to be the messengers for this campaign. Ask your local dealer to send this message back to Ford: The only way Ford will regain its market share and ensure its competitive future is for it to lead the industry in fuel economy standards.

If you are in New York City this Tuesday, please join us for the kickoff of the tour. And even if you’re not in NY, you can signup to host a speaker in your community. Speakers will include UN Ambassador Enele Sosene Sopoaga of Tuvalu, which is drowning because of rising sea levels, and Faith Gemmill of the Arctic, which is melting because of rising temperatures.

Here are the details for NYC. If you’re nearby, please join us.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH, 2006, 7:00PM
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, New York, NY
$5 donation/no one turned away for lack of funds

Sponsored by Global Exchange, Rainforest Action Network, Oil Change International, Arctic Indigenous Alliance, and Society of Pohnpei.

FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Enele Sosene Sopoaga, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Mission of Tuvalu to the United Nations.

Ben Namakin is an environmental educator who grew up on the Pacific Islands of KiribatiMicronesia and where he witnessed first hand how increased erosion and rising sea levels from global warming threaten the survival of islands.

Faith Gemmill is a Pit River/ Wintu and Neets’aii Gwich’in Athabascan from Arctic Village, Alaska. As the outreach coordinator for REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction on Indigenous Lands), Gemmill works to stop the damage that the fossil fuel industry is doing to Alaska native sovereignty, human and ecological health and climate change.

Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi writer, architect, and human rights activist. When Jarrar was the Country Director of CIVIC Worldwide, the only door-to-door casualty survey after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, he saw firsthand the human cost of U.S. oil addiction.

Omoyele Sowore has spent the last 15 years working to promote human rights and democracy in Nigeria, and to stop the militarization and violence that multinational oil companies have brought to his country.

So we must admit that we weren’t too surprised today when Bill Ford Jr. announced that he was stepping down as the CEO of Ford Motor Company. He handed the reigns to Alan Mulally, a veteran executive at the Boeing Company. And the Jumpstart Ford campaign challenges this new CEO to deliver on his predecessor’s environmental promises. If Mr. Mulally is going to fix Ford’s problems he will only do so by increasing fuel efficiency in his fleet. Mr. Mulally could start by building the most efficient vehicles in America – plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

This St. Paul plant rolls out the Ford Ranger truck, a vehicle that has recently seen declining sales. Too bad Ford discontinued the production of the electric Ford Ranger truck, which was made in that same St. Paul factory. The electric version of the Ranger inspired long waiting lists and devoted drivers. As Niel Golightly, Ford’s director of sustainable business strategies has said about the Electric Ford Ranger, “I wish every single one of our products generated as much customer passion.” Maybe, if Ford had paid attention to the tremendous demand for zero-gasoline, zero-emissions vehicles, and produced the vehicles that inspired this kind of passion, they wouldn’t be faced with shutting down factories today.

But we don’t think it’s too late for Ford to commit to these technologies. EVs are still ragingly popular, as witnessed by the lengths that drivers have gone to save their vehicles from destruction.

And if you aren’t sure about the benefits of EVs, let a driver convert you. I just discovered the Vlog (a video blog) of a newly converted EV driver in London (unfortunately you can’t buy a new EV in the US at this point). You can check out all the pleasures of commuting without gasoline.

Maybe, if Ford would commit to build EVs, PEVs and other alternative fuel vehicles, the passionate customers would come back.

Wanna learn more about EVs? Here’s some links:
PlugIn America
EV World

The ad is being launched at a time when oil prices are at an all-time high, U.S. automakers are laying off workers, gas-guzzling SUVs are sitting unsold at dealerships, and American soldiers and Iraqi civilians are dying in Iraq. At a time like this, we expect vision, ingenuity, and determination from our elected leaders and corporate CEOS. Instead, the Senate voted to increase oil industry handouts by more than $10 billion while refusing to increase automobile fuel efficiency. And while over 6,000 Americans have demanded that we Declare Independence from Oil, Ford has announced the token release of just 2,000 hybrid Mercury Mariners. (FYI…Ford’s global production in 2004 was more than 6 million vehicles.) Toyota, on the other hand recently announced their goal to produce almost half a million hybrids next year.

Ford invented the assembly line over 80 years ago and revolutionized industry. Ford’s frontline brand recognition gives it more power to drive the market in the right direction and the responsibility to do so. It’s time for Ford to recapture its spirit of innovation, live up to its reputation, and move beyond PR environmental hype.

Send us a shout and let us know what you think about the ad and the better vision it proposes for America.

Sarah and Nile
The Jumpstart Ford Campaigners