Bill Ford Jr. Ready To Restart his Clean Revolution

According to a Newsweek Press Release Ford CEO Bill Ford Jr. told Newsweek, "My passion for the environment hasn't waned one bit over the years. It's just that events overtook me when I became CEO, and the fires were raging everywhere."

Now he's making the green path his priority.

Of course there no commitments over what or when anything will be done. Newsweek states, "Now Ford won't publicly commit to any hard targets....".

Newsweek does; however, note that Ford has finally released the Escape hybrid. Additionally, Ford Jr. has "convened a panel of young execs to tackle the thorny issue of how Ford can clean up its cars to combat global warming."

Of course 20,000 Escape hybrids, the amount of 2005 hybrids that Ford is going to produce, is but a sliver of Ford sales. Additionally, Ford's next hybrid, a Mercury version of the Escape is more than a year away. Consequently, Ford's words are still far out of line with his actions.

Nonetheless, in my opinion, Ford doesn't have much choice. Now that Russia is part of the Kyoto pact, and the scientific evidence supporting the contribution of auto emissions to global warming is clear, being green is going to be mandated by the market, not CEOs.

CEO's from Honda and Toyota have already prepared for this market-shift and are far beyond Ford in hybrid cars and clean auto technologies. The Accord hybrid is already Honda's third hybrid. While the Toyota Prius has taken America by storm.

Still, if Ford is aggressive, and truly takes the green path, it will be much better for Ford, for America, and for the world.

Regarding the green path Ford states, "Ultimately, if people judge this is the wrong road to be on, then I'm not the guy to do the job. Because I'm not changing."

More information on hybrid cars.