Aside from responding to Barack Obama's recent criticism,
Bill Ford had a bit more to say about the auto industry yesterday. Here's how two articles described Ford's appearance at a Mackinac City, MI event on Michigan's economy.

First, from Reuters, we learn that Ford regrets his company's slow move towards leading the auto industry in a more environmental direction (no kidding). Two quotes from the article:

"In many parts of the auto industry, I was viewed as some kind of crazy radical. And when I talked about the environment 20 years ago -- or frankly even five years -- many people thought I was eccentric at best or perhaps incredibly naive." AND "We didn't stretch enough in the past few years. I think as we got back into the car business we weren't perhaps bold enough."

Second, from Crain's Detroit Business, we hear that Ford spoke in favor of a national energy policy and that "no one person, company or industry can solve these problems by themselves. The automobile industry is getting a lot of attention in regard to CO2 emissions and global warming. But the fact is cars and trucks contribute about 20 percent of CO2 emissions in the U.S. and 10 percent of the worldwide total. We need to do our part as an industry, but we are only one piece of a much bigger puzzle."

In Ford's mind, this puzzle is solved through "auto and energy companies, utilities, nongovernmental entities, government agencies, universities and others" working together. Bold?

[Source: Reuters, Crain's Detroit Business]

Responding to criticism from Barack Obama that "three giants of American industry (Detroit automakers) are hemorrhaging jobs and profits as foreign competitors answer the rising global demand for fuel-efficient cars", Bill Ford suggested that Obama trade in his Chrysler 300C for a Ford 500. He also invited Obama to visit the Ford plant in Chicago where the 500 is built to see what it takes to build an automobile. Automakers, including Ford, have been saying that politicians who have little understanding of the research, development and engineering that goes into making modern automobiles should not be making laws regulating their emissions. They believe that there are better ways of reducing harmful greenhouse gases that escape the tailpipes of our cars, and that other industries should be included in the process of reducing emissions as well. Click here to read more of Bill Ford thoughts and we'll have more on his recent comments in a bit.

[Source: Detroit News]