In a recent diatribe on Fox News [1], the tall hog at the spin-doctoring trough took aim at Ford Motor Co.'s Bill Ford [2], BP's Lord John Browne [3] and General Electric's Jeff Immelt [4] for recognizing the risks of climate change and advocating corporate policies to combat it. Utilizing logic only the "junkman" could spin, well-heeled corporate lackey Steven Milloy tells us environmentally aware chief executives and business don't mix, then gives examples that illustrate why business needs more green CEOs. Milloy, it may be recalled, is a so-called "adjunct scholar" at the Competitive Enterprise Institute [5], a pressure-group advocate for out-of-control petroleum consumption funded by industry. In Ford's case, Milloy shredded him for declaring the company's most profitable vehicle -- SUVs -- degraded the environment. Predictably, he also took issue with Ford's call for higher gas taxes to reduce fuel consumption.
Browne's sins were advocating for global-warming regulation (unpardonable in Milloy's view), and perspicaciously branding gasoline in television commercials as "a necessary evil." Said Milloy: "Gasoline is a miracle product upon which our civilization depends." Immelt was criticized because "he apparently sees being green as GE's path forward."
Unlike Milloy, the three afore-mentioned CEOs appear to have dabbled in the ever-growing body of scientific evidence telling us that global warming is happening and humans are causing it. It may even have dawned on them that their businesses aren't sustainable and need to change in order to survive. While the likes of BP move forward they are leaving corporate cavemen like Milloy in the dust of a bygone old-boys club era.
Poor Milloy. Well, he's certainly not "poor" by a long shot, but he is pathetic in his inability or unwillingness to comprehend the science of climate change. But hey, Milloy isn't paid to confuse the climate-change issue with the facts.