MEDIA ADVISORY: Ford’s Outsized Pollution Rivals a Tyrannosaurus Rex
Jan. 15, 2019
MEDIA ADVISORY
Ford’s Outsized Pollution Rivals a Tyrannosaurus Rex
At the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Activists to Denounce Ford’s Environmental Record
WHAT: As the auto world gathers in Detroit for the storied North American International Auto Show, consumer, health, faith and environmental groups will hold a press conference to denounce the iconic Ford Motor Company’s lobbying of the Trump administration to roll back fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards, known as the clean car standards.
With a 10-foot tall inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex and grassroots activists dressed as dinosaurs, the groups will hold a press conference to discuss the human health and environmental impacts of Ford’s pollution and the company’s effort to undo the rules.
The dinosaurs are meant to illustrate Ford’s outsized pollution; the annual climate pollution emitted from the company’s Expedition SUV (9 tons) is the equivalent of the weight of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
WHEN: 12 p.m. EST Thursday, Jan. 17
WHO: Jason Levine, executive director, Center for Auto Safety, home of the Safe Climate Campaign
Madeline Page, clean cars campaign coordinator, Public Citizen
Kira Jones, communications manager, Breast Cancer Action
Gail Philbin, director, Michigan Sierra Club
Rabbi Moshe Givental, West Bloomfield, Mich., on behalf of Michigan Interfaith Power & Light
WHERE: Cobo Center 1 Washington Blvd. Detroit, Mich.
VISUALS: 10-foot tall inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex and activists dressed in inflatable dinosaur costumes.
Background: In January 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that America’s clean car standards are working and achievable. Yet in April, at the behest of Ford and other automakers and without any change in the facts, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reversed the decision, ignoring the thousands of hours of research and analysis that support keeping the standards. President Donald Trump’s EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have proposed a new rule that would freeze the standards at 2020 levels and revoke the California waiver, which allows the state and 12 others to protect their citizens’ health from harmful tailpipe pollution.
Despite helping craft the greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards, automakers have pushed to roll them back since Trump’s election. Ford and other automakers have attacked the standards at every turn – recently using their trade association to publish regulatory comments to NHTSA that cast doubt on climate science and the link between air pollution and adverse health impacts. Ford has claimed to be good on the climate even while executives have met with administration officials about weakening the standards.
If the standards remain strong, consumers will save billions at the pump, and more than 6 billion metric tons of dangerous climate pollution will be avoided.
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