UCS Success Stories
Ford Responds to Call to Break From U.S. Chamber of Commerce
In October 2009, UCS supporters began calling upon William Ford, Chairman of Ford Motor Company, to make a public break from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to that organization's anti-science stance on the pressing issue of global warming. After receiving more than 22,500 letters from UCS supporters, Ms. Susan Cischke, Ford's Vice President of Sustainability, Environment, & Safety Engineering, responded directly to UCS President Kevin Knobloch (pdf).
Citing an editorial she wrote for the Huffington Post, Cischke noted that while Ford remains a member of the Chamber for many other reasons, they stand apart from the trade group's climate policy position. She reiterated Ford's support of both climate change legislation and the national clean car standard. Ford hopes through its actions in support of climate legislation, investments in advanced vehicle technology, and production of fuel efficient hybrids, the company can assert its position on climate change as separate from the Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber is an outspoken critic of climate change science and policies to rein in global warming pollution. They question climate science, actively oppose climate change legislation, and have attempted to block the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to reduce global warming emissions from the vehicles Americans drive. Several companies have left the Chamber in response to its position on climate change, including Apple, Microsoft, and PG&E, and others have publicly broken with the Chamber's stance on climate the way Ford has.
Click here to read the full letter from Ford (pdf).
