Sierra Club to release video calling out Ford’s ties to Trump admin

The Sierra Club will release a video Wednesday criticizing auto giant Ford for working with the Trump administration to loosen environmental standards.

The video, timed to run in conjunction with the Washington, D.C., auto show this week, criticizes the American car company for working with the administration to roll back Obama-era clean car standards passed in 2012.

“Ford may be trying to put on a good show, but behind closed doors, it has been working with Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt to roll back our single biggest defense against dangerous climate pollution. Ford’s claims of sustainability in its advertising and here at the auto show are nothing more than greenwashing,” said Sierra Club deputy legislative director Andrew Linhardt in a statement to The Hill. 

“The ad exposes Ford’s smoke and mirrors and shows auto show patrons the reality of Ford’s climate hypocrisy. Rather than undermining them, Ford needs to put clean car standards in the fast lane, pushing to strengthen them to protect our health and our climate.”

The minute-long video, entitled “Tell Ford to put clean cars in the fast lane,” shows footage of a man getting into a car that only has the option to go in reverse.

After moving it in gear, it shoots him back in time, placing him into the auto company’s first make. The captioning reads: “Ford is trying to roll back these standards, so they can make cars with worse gas mileage than the Model T.”

Ford pushed back on the ad in a statement Tuesday.

“We are driving carbon reductions with more hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles. Last week, we announced we are investing $11 billion to put these new electric vehicles on the road. Specifically, by 2022, we will have 16 battery electric vehicles and 24 plug-in hybrids and regular hybrids for a total of 40 electrified vehicles,” Christin Baker, a spokeswoman for Ford, told The Hill.

Ford is not the only automobile company to be criticized for its ties to Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Toyota previously came under fire by environmentalists after EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced at a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment hearing in December that the car maker would be working with the agency on work efficiency. Toyota announced last week that it won’t be working with the EPA after all, saying the conversations had only been “preliminary.”

This story was updated at 5:30 p.m.