12 May 2011 Ford CEO Alan Mullaly to Be Asked Why Ford is Lobbying for New Federal Laws to Limit Fossil Fuel Use at Company Shareholder Meeting Thursday

Laws Ford Seeks Would Raise Gas Prices and Harm Ford Customers

Washington, D.C. – At Thursday’s annual meeting of Ford shareholders, David Ridenour, vice president of the National Center For Public Policy Research, will ask Ford CEO Alan Mullaly why Ford continues membership in a corporate-environmental movement lobby organization, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), that exists solely to lobby for federal laws limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Such laws raise fuel prices and disproportionately harm many of Ford’s best customers: farmers, ranchers and those in the construction industry and trades. Less fuel efficient vehicles such as F-150s and Econoline vans accounted for 30% of Ford’s April sales.

Corporate USCAP members reportedly provide six-figure grants to the green lobby group.

Ridenour will distribute results of a poll showing that conservatives, who make up 42% of the U.S. population, overwhelmingly have a negative view of companies that lobby for greenhouse gas emission regulations such as cap-and-trade. The poll, conducted by Wilson Research Strategies for the National Center for Public Policy Research and FreedomWorks late last year, shows Ford is vulnerable to a boycott.

“Ford Motor Company executives should know the risks of being associated too closely to federal programs. The company has benefitted enormously from being the only U.S. automaker that did not accept a government bail-out,” said David Ridenour, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research. “GM, which lost market share to Ford after becoming known as ‘Government Motors,’ seems to have learned a lesson and withdrew from USCAP earlier this year. Its management learned the hard way. Will Ford’s management have to as well?”

For more details on the poll, see: https://nationalcenter.org/teapartysurvey.pdf

“Ford manufactures products that burn fossil fuels, and it is the height of irresponsibility for it to lobby for a federally-prescribed limit on greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ridenour. “Ford doesn’t produce synthetic fuels, but automobiles. If Ford’s management doesn’t understand the difference, Ford shareholders need a new one – one that will not place future profitability at risk.”

Following pressure from the National Center for Public Policy Research, Caterpillar, John Deere, ConocoPhillips, BP and GM have all withdrawn from USCAP. Both the National Center for Public Policy Research and David Ridenour are Ford shareholders.

The National Center For Public Policy Research is a conservative, free-market, non-profit think-tank established in 1982. Its 2010 revenues were over $12 million. It is supported by the voluntary gifts of over 100,000 individual recent supporters, receiving less than one percent of its revenue from corporate sources. Contributions to it are tax-deductible.

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