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Regular readers may recall that a few months’ ago I took issue with Toyota over its Tundra truck – an all-American gas-guzzler that’s a lot more mean than it is lean and green. I criticised Toyota for concealing behind a smokesceen of corporate virtue and moral rectitude – i.e. Prius - a heavyweight pick-up upon which the company hoped to carry forward its aspiration to become the world’s largest car-maker. It seems I am not alone. It is reported in The Economist that a coalition American environmental groups has decided to call attention to Toyota’s double speak by launching a website – the truthabouttoyota.com. The coalition is seeing red about Toyota’s not supporting the Senate-passed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) provisions. The site in particular focuses on the company’s willingness to support various trade associations that intend to sue a number of American states in an attempt to block legislation that will introduce what appear to be quite reasonable limits on average fuel consumption. According to the website, Toyota says it recognizes the problem, but it doesn’t want to be part of the solution. Mind you, this accusation of hypocrisy is from a nation that uses the ‘fight against terrorism’ and ‘peacekeeping’ as a smokescreen from behind which it can siphon off half-a-million barrels of oil every day from a country, which, were its main export potatoes, would almost certainly be left to mind its own business.
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