The big automakers showed a little teeth at this year's Washington Auto Show. The video above begins with Mark LaNeve of GM telling a story about a U.S. senator. The senator suggested to Mark that GM build at least one car that got over 30 MPG. Mark said GM builds 15 cars that gets over 30 MPG and he was shocked a U.S. Senator did not know this. I'm not shocked.

The video above also includes Jim Press of Chrysler talking about state regulation. Jim says it's not just California but 13 other states that want different standards. Why should Chrysler have to make 14 different vehicles, Jim wondered. I think they all want the same standard, so you could just build one car that complied with that standard and sell it in the entire United States.

I recorded the Ford and government press conference as well. As you can see in the video below the fold, something went wrong. Sorry readers, I'm not that familiar with Mini DV video cameras. Ford's Sue Cischke did argue with a reporter on whether or not their were actually CAFE "fines" anymore. Sue said the system has changed and their really are not fines. The reporter did not believe her.

Anyway, your questions could have responses as great as these. The show has two days left. So, post your questions in comments and I will ask them when I head back to the show.

The Federal Trade Commission held a public hearing Tuesday (Jan. 8) on how to regulate "green" advertising and they still want to know what you think. You can watch web-casts of the workshop and anyone is invited to submit comments before the January 25 deadline. Details on how to file a comment electronically, by paper or even confidentially can be found at the FTC website here.

As the New York Times reports, the FTC has not updated their green advertising guidelines or "green guides" since 1998. More than $54m was spent last year on carbon offsets, the Times writes, and there are growing concerns about about the level of "green washing" in paid media (i.e advertising that claims to be green or environmental but really isn't). The Times article on the FTC workshops includes many companies using carbon off-sets and the ad above for Volkswagen's Forest. The ad says VW will offset the first year of carbon emission of every car they sold for four months last year. What do you think about that ad?

For once, I am not going to ask you to post your opinion in our comments, tell the FTC what you think instead. Personally, I like Norway's system for regulating green ads but I doubt we would ever do that in the U.S.

[Source: New York Times]