The Meeting We Wished We'd Attended
April 18, 2007

We're not fans of meetings, but for this one, we would have loved to have been a fly on the wall!

General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz met with David Friedman, research director of the clean vehicles program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, this week to discuss fuel economy improvements.

The environmental group has been pressuring automakers for improved fuel economy and lower emissions, having recently given awards to the best performers in those categories. Honda won; not GM.

Lutz, meantime, has been arguing that an affordable technical solution for improved fuel economy doesn’t exist.

Both sides agreed to keep details of their meeting private, but it doesn’t appear either side budged an inch from their position.

After the meeting, Friedman would only say that the two sides didn't get much closer in their views on the current fuel economy debate. "I don't think anything dramatically changed from the meeting," Friedman told the Detroit News.

A GM spokesman said that automaker appreciated the meeting but that Friedman and other environmentalists lack the industry experience necessary to effectively tackle fuel economy improvements.

"The challenge with the environmentalists is that there is a complete lack of business and technical experience from which they can draw conclusions," GM spokesman Chris Preuss told the Detroit News after the meeting. "The fact is that we must balance dozens of complex regulatory and consumer issues in producing vehicles -- safety, performance, fuel economy and affordability, to name but a few. The environmentalists simply have to produce paper reports."

He added: "The more we can inform and engage the misconceptions, the more robust the societal discussion will be. For that reason, we think the meeting was very worthwhile."

Robust, indeed. Spirited, no doubt.

Environmentalists, like those with the Union of Concerned Scientists, have criticized automakers that claim more stringent fuel economy standards proposed by President Bush and Congress would be prohibitively expensive and not allow them to cater to consumer wants.

Environmentalists charge the auto industry with using the same old arguments it has used with other government safety and fuel-efficiency regulations –- cost and consumer preference.

At the same time, Lutz is passionate, public and vocal about his opinion that global warming is hooey. He’s had to tone down his remarks of late. Now, he often ends a rant with “…having said that, my opinion doesn’t matter.”

In a Wall Street Journal article on horsepower vs. fuel economy from the recent New York auto show, Lutz invited -– or challenged –- environmentalists to "come to my office" with their affordable technological solutions to meet proposed annual fuel economy increases. "Come to my office. Show us your technology... If the technology were readily and easily available what on earth would be our motive for withholding it?" Lutz told the Wall Street Journal.

Friedman took him up on it, meeting Lutz this week in his Detroit office ahead of a speaking engagement at the Society of Automotive Engineers conference.

Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:54 AM under Commentary , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine