BMW, Daimler and Porsche win "Worst EU Lobbying Award"
German car manufacturers BMW, Daimler and Porsche have won quite an unsympathetic award: Worst European Lobbyists of the year, right after the German Atomic Energy Forum.
These automakers' campaign was awarded "excellent" (say it in a high-irony voice) to press for "the delay and dilution" of the introduction of lower CO2 emission limits. They were voted in by almost one-third of the 6,700 voters for the award. The original draft of the EU Commission stated that new cars should lower their average CO2 grams per kilometer from 160 to 120. The manufacturers and their associations claimed that it was going to be runious for their industry, which would lose thousands of jobs, so they got Ms. Angela Merkel's help to raise the limit to 130 g/km, with exceptions for certain classes.
The video above shows a group of Belgian environmentalists (I couldn't get their name from the video or user) giving flowers to the winners, whose offices aren't far from the European Union headquarters in Brussels.
[Thanks to J. Verhoeven for the tip]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
marc e. 10:34AM (7/02/2008)
Good point about the nuclear energy: no GHG, no CO2, no deforestation, no methane, and just a few micrograms of waste per KW/h produced, but the environmental NGOs are against - they prefer coal fired powerplants, as i can see from the former German goverment's energy policy. Clever guys !
Porsche produces 95,000 cars per year - they are driven on average 10,000 kms per year. Toyota produces 5m cars per year which drive on average 15,000 kms per year - guess which manufacturer contribute most to GHG emissions: Porsche or Toyota with its Prius ?
Why don't environmental NGO also lobby for the prohibition of all cars older than 8 years and 2taks mopets : they pollute far more than porsches - and there are millions of them. Households with low income will be supportive, i'm sure, to contribute to the effective reduction of GHG emissions.
The flowers offered to the car manufacturers seems fresh on the video - they came, i guess, from the NL. By special bike courrier ?
Finally: are NGO not lobbyists too ? Sorry i forgot; they are pure and honest by definition.
Reply
Karl-Uwe Strunzen 11:22AM (12/08/2007)
Cool stuff! I've downloaded the video.
VW are also in there too, though. Their average is 20-25 grams worse than Peugeot-Citroen, Fiat-Alfa-Lancia and Renault. At the same time models like the Touareg actually pollute more than some of the cars shown in the video (Touareg CO2 = 267-346 g CO2 depending on the model)
Reply
Mark 10:51PM (12/08/2007)
OK, but does the throw away remark about the German Atomic Energy Forum tell us anything about the award? Any serious effort to improve environmental life will not be anti-nuclear - just how are your going to juice up your electric car?
Reply
priusguy 2:09AM (12/09/2007)
Nice. Hard to see why Porsche would have any incentive to provide lower CO2 emissions.
Real Porsche Prices from Real People
http://www.pricehub.com/price/Porsche/911
Reply