In a recent diatribe on Fox News, the tall hog at the spin-doctoring trough took aim at Ford Motor Co.โs Bill Ford, BPโs Lord John Browne and General Electricโs Jeff Immelt for recognizing the risks of climate change and advocating corporate policies to combat it. Utilizing logic only the โjunkmanโ could spin, well-heeled corporate lackey Steven Milloy tells us environmentally aware chief executives and business donโt mix, then gives examples that illustrate why business needs more green CEOs.
Milloy, it may be recalled, is a so-called โadjunct scholarโ at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a pressure-group advocate for out-of-control petroleum consumption funded by industry. In Fordโs case, Milloy shredded him for declaring the companyโs most profitable vehicle โ SUVs โ degraded the environment. Predictably, he also took issue with Fordโs call for higher gas taxes to reduce fuel consumption.
Browneโs sins were advocating for global-warming regulation (unpardonable in Milloyโs view), and perspicaciously branding gasoline in television commercials as โa necessary evil.โ Said Milloy: โGasoline is a miracle product upon which our civilization depends.โ Immelt was criticized because โhe apparently sees being green as GEโs path forward.โ
Unlike Milloy, the three afore-mentioned CEOs appear to have dabbled in the ever-growing body of scientific evidence telling us that global warming is happening and humans are causing it. It may even have dawned on them that their businesses arenโt sustainable and need to change in order to survive. While the likes of BP move forward they are leaving corporate cavemen like Milloy in the dust of a bygone old-boys club era.
Poor Milloy. Well, heโs certainly not โpoorโ by a long shot, but he is pathetic in his inability or unwillingness to comprehend the science of climate change. But hey, Milloy isnโt paid to confuse the climate-change issue with the facts.
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