Toyota's Two-Faced Stance on Climate Change

[kgrandia]

As the old saying goes: "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Or in the case of Toyota: "You can't have your green and fight it too."

With a well-earned reputation as a leader in the development of fuel efficient cars it boggles my mind that Toyota continues to be a supporter of the US Chamber of Commerce - an organization that is leading the charge against President Obama's clean energy agenda. Other big supporters of the Chamber of Commerce have been distancing themselves from the organization over their archaic standpoint on the issue of climate change. Just today we saw Nike relinquish its membership on the US Chamber's board, stating that:

"we fundamentally disagree with the US Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change and their recent action challenging the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action."

And over the last week two other high profile members have quit, including the largest US electric utility company, Exelon. In a press release, Exelon states that:

"Exelon is so committed to climate legislation that Rowe announced during today's speech that Exelon will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to the organization's opposition to climate legislation."

If an energy producer and a shoe company are willing to take such a strong stance, one would reason that Toyota, a company that heavily markets itself as a "sustainable mobility" company, would have led the exodus from the US Chamber. Instead we see all sorts of big green talk from the auto-giant, like:

"We support environmental programs that educate and mobilize people to reduce their environmental footprint."

"At Toyota, our commitment to the environment goes beyond our products."

"As an auto manufacturer, Toyota believes that "sustainable mobility" can be achieved through advanced technologies, key partnerships and creative people who are willing to take on this most important challenge."

It goes on and on like this throughout Toyota's website and I applaud them for putting their money where there mouth is on things like their Together Green program. But it all rings just a little too hollow when you know that at the same time they're doing all this "green" work, they're still a big backer of the US Chamber of Commerce who continues to be a major lobby against action on climate change.

At the least it seems to me to be financially backwards to fund one group that is advancing environmental causes while at the same time funding those opposed to those very same things. At the most, it makes me wonder whether all of Toyota's "green" image in nothing more than a clever ruse.

If Toyota is genuinely committed to sustainability as they say they are, then they can can take their lead from Nike, Exelon and others and stop supporting the US Chamber and their attack on the Obama administration's clean energy and climate change reforms. If they don't leave the US Chamber, then we know where their motivations truly lie.

LINK: http://www.desmogblog.com/toyotas-two-faced-stance-climate-change

[Nihil]

1. Which other big players are left in the CoC?

> If Toyota is genuinely committed to sustainability as they say they are,
> then they can can take their lead from Nike, Exelon and others and stop
> supporting the US Chamber and their attack on the Obama administration's
> clean energy and climate change reforms.

If Toyota is the only car manufacturer left there then I agree that they
should leave. If GM & Ford are still there then they can't (or the CoC will
pull another of their "close the wagons" games and shut them out of the
US market). Bear in mind that if/when GM produce a competitor to the Prius,
there will be even more smear jobs on Toyota than at present.

> If they don't leave the US Chamber, then we know where their motivations
> truly lie.

Their first motivation is to stay in business. If that means pinching their
noses and staying in the shit-pit of the US CoC then that's what they'll do
as long as their competitors are rolling around in there.

:shrug:

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Who’s a member?

http://www.uschamber.com/about/default.htm

About Us

Representing your ideas—and interests—in Washington for nearly a century.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations. More than 96% of U.S. Chamber members are small businesses with 100 employees or fewer.

…

As for Toyota being two-faced… It's not as if their entire product line is the “Prius.” Remember the Toyota Tundra (melter?) Toyota's sold more of these beasts in the US than Prius'.
http://www.toyota.com/tundra/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Tundra#US_annual_sales

US Calendar Year     Sales
    2000            100,445
    2001            108,863
    2002             99,333
    2003            101,316
    2004            112,484
    2005            126,529
    2006            124,508
    2007            196,555
    2008            137,249

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius#Sales

Annual sales worldwide and by region (in thousands)
Year    World   Japan   North
                        America U.S.  Europe Other
…
2000 	19.5 	12.5 	5.8 	5.6 	0.7 	0.01
2001 	29.0 	11.0 	16.0 	15.6 	2.3 	0.2
2002 	28.1 	6.7 	20.3 	20.1 	0.8 	0.2
2003 	43.2 	17.0 	24.9 	24.6 	0.9 	0.4
2004 	125.7 	59.8 	55.9 	54.0 	8.1 	1.9
2005 	175.2 	43.7 	109.9 	107.9 	18.8 	2.9
2006 	185.6 	48.6 	109.0 	107.0 	22.8 	5.3
2007    281.3   58.3    183.8   181.2 	32.2 	7.0
2008            60              158.9

I dunno why. For some reason, Toyota seems to get a free pass on this board:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/69534

Toyota’s Green Problem

Despite the Prius, environmentalists are turning on the carmaker for opposing new gas-mileage laws.

By Keith Naughton | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated Nov 19, 2007

When Toyota introduced its Prius hybrid car in America seven years ago, Detroit laughed it off. With gas prices at $1.50 a gallon, they argued, no one would buy it. But Dan Becker embraced the little mileage miser. Then head of the Sierra Club's global-warming project, Becker invented an award to give Toyota: the Sierra Club Award for Excellence in Environmental Design. Then he took the Prius on a 50-city promotional tour. Finally, Becker paid Toyota the ultimate compliment; he bought a Prius. Today, Becker is still driving the car, but he's no longer praising Toyota. Instead, he now calls the automaker a "hypocrite" for siding with Detroit in opposition to tougher new gas-mileage laws. "It's embarrassing to have applauded Toyota for the Prius," says Becker, "and now to see them acting so irresponsibly."

The environmental community has turned on Toyota. First, it quietly castigated the carmaker for joining the Detroit Three in a lawsuit against California over legislation to reduce global-warming gases from cars by 30 percent within a decade, which would require cars to get up to 43 miles per gallon. Opposition increased when Toyota—in contrast to Honda and Nissan—sided with Detroit to try to block legislation currently before Congress to boost fuel economy for all new vehicles to 35mpg by 2020, up from 25mpg today. Toyota, in a familiar Motown refrain, says achieving such a hard target is not technologically feasible. It is pushing softer legislation that gives automakers until 2022 to improve fuel economy and continues giving breaks to big trucks and SUVs. "We haven't changed what we're doing to reduce our environmental footprint," says Toyota's top lobbyist, Josephine Cooper. "But our engineers are scratching their heads, saying, 'How will we get there?' Those are big numbers to achieve."

To the green crowd, though, Toyota is a turncoat. Their cries are reaching a wider audience as oil soars toward $100 a barrel and gas prices top $3 a gallon. Several environmental groups have launched a "How Green Is Toyota?" publicity blitz, which includes a letter-writing campaign they say has clogged the inbox of Toyota's top U.S. exec with more than 100,000 e-mails. In Detroit last month, eco-warriors stormed a Toyota dealership and draped it with a banner showing flag-wrapped coffins beside the slogan "Driving War and Warming." "Is Toyota really committed to being green, or are they just green scamming?" asks Rob Perks of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

How did Toyota go from paragon to pariah so quickly? The fuel-economy debate has laid bare Toyota's broader product strategy, which includes a big new Tundra pickup that gets 14mpg in the city. The 48mpg Prius remains the green standard, controlling half the hybrid market, but it doesn't make money for Toyota, analysts say, because of its complicated and costly gas-electric propulsion system. The Tundra, however, could eventually contribute $10,000 per truck to the bottom line. More important, offering a full lineup of cars, trucks and SUVs is critical to Toyota's goal of becoming the world's No. 1 automaker. (The race is neck and neck: General Motors leads with 7.06 million vehicles sold worldwide so far this year to Toyota's 7.05 million.)

…

[Nihil]

3. "Toyota seems to get a free pass on this board"

I wouldn't agree that it's a "free pass" (there are enough GM people
around here for a start) but it is definitely true that they get
less flak than they deserve at times.

I think that is largely down to the Prius effect - their only
competitor on that front is Honda (and they keep their heads
well down) - but, as your 2007 article pointed out, Toyota also
have guzzlers if you want them.

Sadly (for us) their "business head" is still firmly on the shoulders
of their business body and, as a result, as long as there is a market
for guzzlers (which basically means as long as there are stupid
people around with more money than sense) they will continue to
keep an offering in that market.

Actually it's more than that: they will continue to keep a *competitive*
offering out there because, as a company, they cannot afford to walk away
from money (even the money of stupid people).

:shrug:

It's similar (in some ways) to the population problem: if only the
smart, concerned people opt to have no children, the result is the
swamping by the stupid. As a result, the compromise is for the smart
to still have a few children (replacement) but to ensure that the
impact of said few is as small as possible. In the car case, if car
manufacturer T was the only one to "do the right thing", they would
go out of business and leave the market open to even more of the stupid.
Getting the balance right is the challenge ...


ETA: Thanks for the link on the CoC but it didn't answer my question ...
except perhaps to show that there is no answer ... from their FAQ:

> Is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?
>
> Membership in the U.S. Chamber is open to any company, and does
> not imply our endorsement of the organization. We will not confirm
> the membership status of organizations. To find out if a specific
> company is a member, you will have to contact the company directly.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. On the whole, Honda's got Toyota beat for MPG (but no one seems to know that)

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck/2008/07/fleet-economy.html

2007 model year statistics

Domestic passenger
Daimler-Chrysler: 28.6 mpg (-36% overall sales)
Ford: 29 mpg (-28% overall sales)
General Motors: 29.9 mpg (-18% overall sales)
Toyota: 31.6 mpg (-21% overall sales)
Honda: 33.5 mpg (+1.1% overall sales)

Imported passenger
Daimler-Chrysler: 24.7 mpg (-36% overall sales)
Ford: 29.9 mpg (-28% overall sales)
General Motors: 31.9 mpg (-18% overall sales)
Toyota: 38.5 mpg (-21% overall sales)
Honda: 39.6 mpg (+1.1% overall sales)

Light trucks
Ford: 22.2 mpg (-28% overall sales)
Daimler-Chrysler: 22.6 mpg (-36% overall sales)
General Motors: 22.6 mpg (-18% overall sales)
Toyota: 23.9 mpg (-21% overall sales)
Honda: 25 mpg (+1.1% overall sales)

As for GM. I'm no fan. I prefer the technology of a serial/series hybrid (like the "Volt") to the parallel hybrid of the Prius. However, always in the back of my mind is the niggling reminder that the "Volt" is made by GM… whose vehicles have never impressed me.