GM Vice Chairman Calls Global Warming A "Total Crock of S**t"

Thank god someone has the courage to say what a lot of people will not.

he just said what everybody else is thinking. however, i think the comment leaves out the part, "as far we are concerned" in our lifetime that is.

everyone no's that global warming is real. co2 levels have dramatically increased since the industrial revolution. we know that co2 increases temperature: just look at venus. how can you say that global warming isn't real?

Oh this is silly,

GM is really trying to help the environment.

People should not be listening behind doors anyways. What Lutz is most likely saying what a Bunch of Bull crap Toyota is when they have the Prius Plant that causes so much Green house emissions that driving a old hummer is better for the environment.

This is a true story when they researched where the Prius came from.

Basically I support Lutz what ever he said was out of context I am sure listening though a door. This article is made to make a good US company look bad.

The only thing green about Toyota is US money going to Japan.

Lutz knows global warming is real we all do we just need to start doing more.

What is BS is thinking cars are the only problem. Cars do not create as much harmful emissions as farms and cows.

So BOB might be right where he says its BS that cars are the only cause.

Like everyone else involve in this issue, where billions of dollars are involve. we wish we never knew about global warming. But we have and yes I too have those bad days. but this will not stop company's from researching and moving forward because we plan too. every1 hates global warming, its too hard to decide. Hybrid is a good step and it provides the future research for electric cars. Electric cars are great but who will be the first in mass production and will it survive. Will GM get it right?, a lot of people out there think it would not even be made and if it is, it would seriously be delayed. ignore the concept s and wait for the real one when you decide. Hybrid now but not standard diesel. Good luck for GM, I'll be waiting 4 final product.

well he had the balls to say it, because he has nothing to worry about but im 18 and i do care. it would be cool if he acually went through with the volt, but global warming is real and we cant just ignore it.

Why in the name of all that's holy should we believe anything spewing from this guy's trap?

After all, his company lost $38.7 BILLION last year.

His company is the total crock of sh*t.

I agree Lutz, the whole global warming thing IS a bunch of crock.

If people actually did some real research with look at scientific journals they will find tons of facts agianst global warming. A good book that has already collected a few of these journals is called "State of Fear". I know it's fiction but I researched some of his sources and their all valid and say the same thing he says.

We need alternative rescources like the Volt to help us off our dependency on foreign oil.

Mr. Lutz seems to be much more concerned about dependence on foreign oil than the latest cause célèbre. If we take him at face value, it's hard to argue that global warming exists. If we take him to mean that global warming HYSTERIA is a crock, then I'm right there with him.

- bob

Oops. I wrote "If we take him at face value, it's hard to argue that global warming exists." which should've said "If we take him at face value, it's hard to argue that global warming does not exist."

Gotta remember to hit the preview button. Sorry guys.

- bob

Luntz is correct. Man-caused global warming is a crock. Why, then, would he still promote the Volt? Plain and simple economics; GM sees a market for this product, thus they are in development. It matters not a bit whether Lutz, or GM in general, believes in the global warming hoax. Enough idiots out there do believe so as to make this product a reasonable venture. GM is not out to save the planet, they are out to make a buck.

Regardless of that, if we were to assume that GM's motives were altuistic, we can easily eliminate GW as a factor and still identify advantages of switching to electric cars. First is the reduction of support for rogue oil-producing regimes, and second is the net positive effect on the environment, regardless of the laughable man-caused global warming hysteria that many commenters here seem to have bought into.

Luntz is correct. Man-caused global warming is a crock. Why, then, would he still promote the Volt? Plain and simple economics; GM sees a market for this product, thus they are in development. It matters not a bit whether Lutz, or GM in general, believes in the global warming hoax. Enough idiots out there do believe so as to make this product a reasonable venture. GM is not out to save the planet, they are out to make a buck.

Regardless of that, if we were to assume that GM's motives were altuistic, we can easily eliminate GW as a factor and still identify advantages of switching to electric cars. First is the reduction of support for rogue oil-producing regimes, and second is the net positive effect on the environment, regardless of the laughable man-caused global warming hysteria that many commenters here seem to have bought into.

sorry for th edouble submission.

Global warming concerns the author of the article greatly. That's fine with me, but he might be advised that there is more to life than that. GM is making the Volt to compete with Toyota who, unlike American car makers, recognized that the consumer wants to save money on fuel. So, it's fuel efficiency that is the driving force behind the Volt not global warming.

It's caused by a disruption in the carbon cycle known as deforrestation. Our CO2 emissions are a drop in the ocean of natural processes like volcanoes, but it's our appetites (literally for food and by extension farmland) that are the real problem...

First things first.

In spite of the majority of what has been published about the Volt, it's not about being a plug-in hybrid. The concept behind the Volt is to divorce about 80% of a vehicle from being restricted to one particular power source. It's a vehicle architecture, not a plug-in hybrid. Yes, the first car based on the Volt will likely be a plug-in hybrid to be released in 2010, but remember, it's about vehicle architecture, not about plug-ins.

Now for a little history.

GM spent bazillions on the EV1 program back when that was the pop-gov fad of the day, and they learned two things. 1 - Battery technology wasn't (and still isn't today, but maybe by 2010) up to par for making a truly viable electric vehicle. 2 - In spite of all the promises, nobody wanted to wait several hours for a recharge.

Next, GM got snookered into believing that if they developed a viable fuel-cell powerplant, the fuel would somehow become available, and the lefties/greenies/etc would give them some credit for being green. Well, GM spent bazillions on developing a viable fuel cell powerplant only to find out that nobody had a commercially realistic answer for producing/distributing hydrogen fuel. Strike two.

So then as the fuel cell handwriting on the wall became clear, GM develops a decent range of useful hybrid vehicles, no plug-in charging necessary.

About this time, some fools come along and suggest that if you replace some of the very efficient, cleanly burned fuel used in a hybrid, with some very unclean plug-in charging, you could get a super-duper 500 MPG.

So now let me show you the Volt forest behind the technically-illiterate green-media trees.

The Volt concept is to use an electric drive motor to move the car, regardless of what the primary power source is. That way, the propulsion, the majority of the vehicle controls, and the user interface can stay the same, regardless of whether the required electric power is produced by a series hybrid, parallel hybrid, fuel cell, a plug-in battery only, or some other combination of the above.

It doesn't matter how you supply the electric power, as long as it fits in x amount of space and provides the right number of volts and amps, GM (and anybody else who gets a clue) won't have to reinvent the car every time the fickle winds of regulatory and green-culture fads shift to the newest whim.

So with the Volt, GM has effectively said, fool us 3-4 times, shame on you, fool us again, well we won't get fooled again, because with the Volt's E-Flex architecture, we've got a car that will run on whatever flavor of petroleum, bio-fuel, hydrogen or kilowatts you can reliably provide for it.

Oh, and by the way, as anybody with at least a sixth-grade education and an open mind can figure out, the man-made climate cooling/warming/change myth is a giant crock of bio-mass.

It's the Sun, stupid!

@elliskevin: State of Fear is a great book, and it actually gives (for once) real information that you can check up, not fabricated sh*t like "An Inconvenient Truth." CO2 actually rises about 800 years out of sync after temperature change. But I still believe Mr. Lutz is pushing for the "green" aspect of the Volt.

This is one of the dumbest comment threads I've ever seen. What is it about teh interwebs that brings out the self-righteously ignorant? Is it a lowest-common-denominator thing or a 'we have no other outlet for our nonsense' thing?

Have fun fiddling while Rome burns, denialists!

Since when is Bob lutz a scientist? Since when does GM do environmental research? Since when do they care about it?

GM is a business and their only goal is to make money (which they obviously haven't been doing). If they are going to make the Volt they will do to compete with Toyota and other hybrid models and also to comply with with upcoming gov regulations

The only Crock of shit is the critisism this man must deal with. And for those of you that that despise GM for the loss in deficit, Go fuck yourselfs. Because There the ones that have been putting money in yours and parents pockets for years. Undfortunately these "American Made" foriegn companies ahem** Toyota, claim they produce american made hardcore vehicles...Theres the load of crap. There parts are mined and pressed in japan and installed in the states. And when you have to buy the parts to fix them, look at the build location MADE IN JAPAN!!! The 37 billion gm forked over was to supply the money for pensions they dish out for their workers. Their workers make more then anyother factories in the world. Rather then despising A corperation for doing the one civilized duty no other company could possibly fathem doing, why dont we take a moment and think why our economy is going to hell...Hmmm yes thats right, because all the profit of american made vehicles gets sent over seas...
And an interesting fact for all you muscle buffs, Toyotas new line of nascar engines had the GM castings scraped off the sides of the blocks. Yes thats right, exact blueprints. But on the bright side, atleast there made in america....

The bottom line is... NONE OF THIS IS ROCKET SCIENCE! Automakers were selling cars 10+ years ago that got 50+ mpg. Yeah, they were small, slow, etc... BUT, they were extremely fuel efficient cars.

What's so funny to me is that we have people running around buying Priuses and other "green" hybrid vehicles - as if they really help anything. If these people really wanted to go "green", they'd buy and restore older Honda Civics, Geo Metros, etc... These types of cars get easily 50+ mpg WITHOUT expensive batteries, or any "new technology".

If GM (or any other manufacturer) wanted to, they could build a standard car that gets more gas mileage than any hybrid, TOMORROW. However, research has shown that the average US consumer wants more horsepower, and more features for our money. Those two things singlehandedly KILL mpg. The average consumer won't and doesn't look to buy a Geo Metro type vehicle, and therefore the manufacturers don't build them. This is supply and demand economics.

I don't know about you, but if I were GM, and I had to choose between spending a billion dollars developing something "green" that only some people MIGHT buy, and continuing to build more inefficient cars that I already know MOST people ARE ALREADY BUYING, and will continue to buy... I'd choose the latter every time.

It's business, and until the market says so, I think that GM and the manufacturers won't be beating the old 50+ mpg Civic any time soon.

**********************
Technology can do most anything. The real question is... Do you actually know what you want to do?

I can't argue about "global warming", however, it seems that the standard attitude is "the environment is changing, so it must be our fault and it must be bad!". Not that long ago scientists were screaming "annother ice age is comming, we need to spend billions to head it off!". Some reports I have read say that Mt. St. Hellens put more "greenhouse gasses" into the atmosphere than all mankind has. I don't feel we should neglect the environment just not pannic!

Are you serious?

Are you freaking serious?!

To all you Bob Lutz loving exhaust pipe suckers:
Go jump in the middle of the road!

Apparently, Global Warming should be called something different because you people who side/agree with Bob Lutz/GM are missing the point that what this is should be called is Massive Global Pollution.

Pollution!!! That's what causes every thing else... the warming... the melting... the cancer... the war!

I have to disagree about the Volt. GM is going to kill the creativity in this market, just like a hundred years ago when the side-shuffle to internal combustion happened with battery and electric technology. (”Internal Combustion” by Edwin Black). Big conglomerate savior = Big empty promise. If the Volt represents anything, it is the copycat ideology behind GM to pull bureaucratic-like politico mischief in bandwagoning on popular movements while trying to dismiss its history and greenwash its reputation. People, I hope you don’t fall for GM, because just like any real (American) “Revolution,” the powers that be are always far away from reality…

GM’s been around for 100 years now. Since 1908, this company has done nothing more than monopolize an American Dream. Can you imagine what would you be capable of doing if you had 100 years to work on Tesla Motors? The Aeronautics Industry, literally launched in 1903 by the Wright Brothers, has made it to Space! And that was over 40 years ago! I have no respect for GM. Tesla Motors was that one giant leap for the automotive industry and now the “Boards that be” are pulling another caper over innovation and invention. I’m sorry to say but Nikola Tesla himself stood for everything contrarian to selling-out to Big Business. And Edison despised Tesla mainly for not focusing first on money. Elon Musk Beware! The question for anyone reading this is: Are You a Tesla or an Edison?

The Volt may finally shock GM’s business model and resuscitate an industry that has been dwindling since the 70’s. This economy has suffered enough when dreams are aborted and crushed like tin cans because something like the EV1 represented an abomination to blue-blooded white-collar arm-chair imperial-capitalists...

nuttyprof:
It's interesting that you mention Mt. St. Helen's. The sulfur that volcanoes dump into the atmosphere creates a mirror effect that bounces sunlight out of the atmosphere and negates global warming. Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The downside of putting a bunch of sulfur in the atmosphere is that atmospheric sulfur creates acid rain.

I don't think the vast majority of climate scientists that believe global warming is real are wrong.

GM has a host of problems as a company, as do the other older American auto companies. Those car companies are suffering in part because they're paying health care for both current and a lot of ex-workers. They've also made less reliable cars than foreign car makers for most of the last 30+ years. I think that the way these companies are structured is the problem. Many of the foreign car makers use design companies from the US. Their are dozens of alternate engine designs from American inventors, lighter materials, alternate ways to make cars, largely ignored by the American car makers. They've become financial companies, not car companies, GM makes more off their loans than they do off their cars.

The Volt is an interesting idea, but it's too damn late. Clinton's PNGV gave all the American car companies a leg up on the competition, they chose not to take advantage of it. I don't think we've seen the end of the American auto, but I think it's future is going to be companies like Tesla and Aptera.

Oh Dear,

Coming from Europe, I have the unfortunate perspective in seeing just how 'in the dark' US citizens are about global warming (and indeed on many other global issues which are covered by the media outside of the US). It is sad to see also how this is precipitated by a President that cares only about the oil industry and who personally led the initiative to pull out of the Kyoto agreement days after he took office.

When your readers make false statements about how much science proves that global warming is not really happening it is worrying but inevitable in an ill-informed society where balanced and impartial news rarely makes it into the living room. When suposedly well educated and responsible managers of major coprorations such as GM make such ridiculous claims then it is truly alarming. The scientific community is OVERWHELMINGLY agreed that global warming is happening and the sooner we get the likes of Mr Lutz to accept the facts, the sooner we can bring the great citizens of the USA on board and take steps to try and help reduce global warming.

Until that time, I really fear for the future, and especially for our children. If you think some parts of Africa are bad today where water and electricity is scarce, just wait until the USA starts to run out of oil and sees the full ravages of global warming 20-30 years from now.

To comment on the effect of Volcanoes on Global Warming, Commanders you are right that the most prevalent effect of voncanic activity comes from Sulfur which actually works to cool off the planet. Volcanoes do also release C02 but it's not on any scale that has an impact on global warming. Volcanoes contribute on average about 300 million metric tonnes of C02 to the carbon cycle each year while Humans contribute about 27 BILLION metric tonnes of C02 per year. But both of those numbers actually pale in comparison to the carbon cycle as a whole which includes the respiration of all plants and animals and comprises about 800 BILLION metric tonnes. Taking this into account it stands to reason that the manmade factors of deforestation and algea blooms caused by polution (when algea blooms it actually kills everything as the dead algea decays and depletes oxygen levels) have a much greater impact than our mere 27 Billion metric tonnes worth of C02 emissions. We're reducing the environment's ability to re-absorb carbon and that's our biggest problem. Mr. Lutz, you are wrong, global warming is real and caused by humans but you're not a hipocrite since the Volt wouldn't do anything about that unless it can grow trees somewhere in it's diminutive frame... The motivations behind the Volt are obviously "Economical" and not "Ecological".

Global warming is happening. the issue shouldnt be that, the issue is if its caused by humans or not. The earth regulates itself and changes tempuratures over the years by itself. There was a mini ice age near he beginning of the last millenium that wiped out the Vikings. The polar ice caps on mars are melting as well. don't try to tell me that our CO2 levels are causing that on Mars too. There is only one thing that people are talking about and its these CO2 levels since the industrial revolution. Newsflash, co2 is made much more by nature then by humans. And co2 isn't the main cause of climate change. Its due to changes made by the sun and just nature in general such as cloud cover and such. The reason Venus is as hot as it is isnt because it has a ton of co2, its because it has a thick atmosphere that keeps all of its heat trapped inside. We don't have that type of atmosphere. There is simply no proof that we need to do anything to stop global warming. Look it up, the story only gets worse because peoples jobs in the enviornment depend on it being worse.
In conclusion, the earth may be warming, but its been a hell of a lot warmer then it is now in the last 1000 years.

Well, I began reading comments and was astounded at the number of people who kept saying that global warming is a crock and that they agree with Mr. Lutz.

As I kept reading, I was discouraged regarding the correct education and level of education of the people posting.

Now there are two issues at hand. One is about the car, and the other is about global warming. I must say I agree with "stevejallen" and "gayasstechie" with their remarks in global warming. Some people take it too literally as though we ourselves with our breathing are affecting global warming, which is not the case. Global warming is not a myth, it's fact. When you show graphs, scientific evidence of earth's climate going up, some call it coincidence, whereas some see the truth.

Tearing down forests, building non-economical cars is definitely one way to aid in the warming up of the planet.

I don't have time to fully explain things, but I think the aforementioned did a good job at breaking it down well.

Now the car: yeah it's simple, GM is a business who wants money and will do what they can to appeal to those who are willing to give their money to the company.

Contrary to what GM said, the battery capabilities WERE good enough to sustain a battery operated vehicle like the EV1. (Watch "who killed the electric car" ...they do a better job explaining than I can right now). Oh and "an inconvenient truth" is BS? Hah, I'm very disappointed in people who think this way, and it embarrasses me to say that I live in the U.S. with these people who live under rocks.

In any case, this article is what Mr. Lutz said about global warming, and trying to tie it in with the car. Mr. Lutz, my religion disallows me to think/feel negative things about you, but if it didn't, I'd wish you to either die the death of a million camels, or suffer the fate of burning to death...but because I'm nice, I shan't wish these upon you.

Maybe driving Priuses isn't going to fix the global warming issue, but that's not their primary usage. They were made to be more economical...that or get diesel cars (or electric). I can't wait until the Writespeed X1 is a production car!!

When will the media address the most abundant global warming gas? It's not CO2, but H2O. 95% of Global warming gases is water vapor. I'm sure reducing CO2 a fraction of a percentage point will make a huge difference...not. Can we get back to real science rather than popular "science". Check it out for yourself online.

GM is the making the Volt for the same reason they make all their vehicles. People will buy it. (I would buy it to clean up the stinky city air.) Then they make money.

I'd like a little more proof that this guy actually said it-going on the assumption that he did-and his bosses find out-with any luck his 8 million dollar mortgage will reset the day he gets fired from his multi-million dollar job-and his Escalade will get repo'd too. The only thing worse than an arrogant rich person is a STUPID one-and anyone who ignores the obvious signs (of global warming) probably voted for Bush and owns a big V-8 4 dr GM pickup that he drives around in alone-deservedly. swampjeff

who cares that the world is warming? Who says it shouldn't?

1. Pollution: all these years of producing cars with more stringent pollution standards..so why is pollution worse (or is it?) does that mean catalytic converters don't work?
2. Motive: companies are in the business of making money. So someone will get smart and sell green because green sells, not because it helps the environment. (can you say carbon-offsets?)
3. Electric: people forget what happened in calif, the state that wanted everyone to drive zero-emissions electric cars? how do you charge them? remember the brown outs a few summers ago. So you have to work through the chain - we'd need nuclear reactors that can product the clean electricity needed to charge the clean electric cars, and charging stations everywhere so i don't have to wait for a 4 hour charge.
4. Fuel-cells: What is it that retains heat in our atmosphere? water vapor. What do fuel cell cars emit? water vapor. doesn't this go against logic?
5. Depleting oil: as long as Kuwaitis are buying multi-million $ airplanes that last 30 years and run on petroleum fuels, I have no reason to believe we're going to run out of oil.
6. Politics: If global warming is really man-made, why is this issue clearly split along political party lines?
7. (homage to Andy Rooney) Did ya ever wonder why no one can SPELL when they post? wassup wid dat? (no's? you mean knows?)

who cares that the world is warming? Who says it shouldn't?

1. Pollution: all these years of producing cars with more stringent pollution standards..so why is pollution worse (or is it?) does that mean catalytic converters don't work?
2. Motive: companies are in the business of making money. So someone will get smart and sell green because green sells, not because it helps the environment. (can you say carbon-offsets?)
3. Electric: people forget what happened in calif, the state that wanted everyone to drive zero-emissions electric cars? how do you charge them? remember the brown outs a few summers ago. So you have to work through the chain - we'd need nuclear reactors that can product the clean electricity needed to charge the clean electric cars, and charging stations everywhere so i don't have to wait for a 4 hour charge.
4. Fuel-cells: What is it that retains heat in our atmosphere? water vapor. What do fuel cell cars emit? water vapor. doesn't this go against logic?
5. Depleting oil: as long as Kuwaitis are buying multi-million $ airplanes that last 30 years and run on petroleum fuels, I have no reason to believe we're going to run out of oil.
6. Politics: If global warming is really man-made, why is this issue clearly split along political party lines?
7. (homage to Andy Rooney) Did ya ever wonder why no one can SPELL when they post? wassup wid dat? (no's? you mean knows?)

my post was so good they wanted it up there twice :-)

Sigh.... I'm really disappointed by the ignorance that people have about climate change. No wonder our governments aren't doing anything to help, the voting public does not understand the issue.

I've put down my thoughts in the comments section of "Climate Change—Don’t Blame It on the Sun"... I won't bother to post again here.

I now understand why GM is losing so much money. The leadership requires inteligence but after reading this comment it's obvious this leader is lacking it.

Very few of us actually study global warming phenomena and many of us decide the issue with the attitude of the part of the political spectrum we reside in. It's like the urban legends which continue to circulate because of our feeling of the truth of them. I think that we all ought to try to consider the issue with an open mind, not with the attitude that it's another wacky tree hugger idea or that's it's simply the earth's revenge against the greedy capitalists.

Ha, Ha, Ha!! Like anyone will actually do that!

We'll all be waiting for greenhouse warming to happen while we starve to death because our fisheries have collapsed and shellfish can't reproduce without a shell dissolved by the acidified ocean. We may not eat all that much fish but we won't be able to afford our own food while China is foreclosing on our houses! Maybe Ireland will send us some potatoes or we can learn to eat cactus and jellyfish!

I have thought the big 3 were asleep at the switch. This is just another sighn this is true.

Because electricity is a renewable resource, oil currently has a limited supply and we currenlty have to purchase it from other countries.

Mr. Lutz has access to the same data that all of us have, he just doesn't have to dig through it himself. If you truly believe what Al Gore has published as "Truth" to be factual, I'm afraid you may also put a racist or habitual Liar in the White House due to the fact that you really can't, "see the forest because all the trees are blocking your view!" Our little piece of the universe has undergone Climate change since it's first days, It gets colder and it gets warmer and it always will, at least until it Dies. We have given the Nobel Prize to a person that has sold the world a bottle of Snake Oil and he has single-handedly given the Oil producing Nations and Corporations a license to Rob us Blind. They are forced to raise prices to compensate for the coming reduction of gallons sold, due to the extinction of SUVs and V-8 powered cars and trucks that we should now be too ashamed to own. All the "Carbon Credits" in the world will never make Al Gore an Honorable person or the Worlds Climate any different, by even 1/2 of 1 degree! The Sun is 98 million miles away but it's the only variable factor affecting our Climate. If you want to understand our climate change just look up! If you research the Suns evolution and temperature profile over the last fifty years you might discover "The Non-Fabricated Truth!" Our Real Crisis are... Health Care, Homelessness, Violent Crime & the ILLEGAL Drug Income that propels It! Wake Up and Smell the Coffee America!

#3 "we'd need nuclear reactors that can PRODUCT the clean electricity needed to charge the clean electric cars,... didn't you mean produce?

You actually complained (Andy Rooney or not) about other peoples spelling after printing that?

That's an awful lot like Gore living in that energy hog house of his.

Do as I say! Not as I Do! Shame... Shame... Shame El Condor!

I'm reminded of a favorite quote... Judge not lest Ye be Judged! I can only hope that you've read that Book.

I could not believe that an educated high ranking officer from the top car manufacturer could be talking like someone who does'nt know what is going on around him. That kind of language is unacceptable from the public ralations point of view and does'nt help his company sell vehicles, which should be his ultimate goal. I am really disgusted, since I sincerelly believed Mr Lutz was a bright individual. It makes me give second thoughts about buying a GM product.

How the Chevy Volt stacks up against the Miles Electric Vehicles XS500?

Hahaha I hope this idiot was the first one fired! Sorry about your luck GM but you guys are not going to make it. Nice planning for the future idiots. Your cars have the same milage as they did 20 years ago. Did you guys take your business lessons from the same school as the decider bush?

Hi,

You can beat the big auto manufacturers and oil cos. I fond these two articles on similar subjects - I think the big guys are trying to keep it quiet though.

How Does a Water Powered Car Work?

Run Your Car On Water

Gary.

Global warming is in the same situation as animal rights. Both have major organizations created for those causes, but the organizations of both are filled with corrupted morons who don't practice what they preach. The hysteria is unnecessary. High CO2 levels = increased plant growth as it is sucked out of the air and recycled.

As for the commenter that mentioned how "in the dark" Americans are and that we never ever get fair impartial news, guess that shows what you know about Americans. I've heard everything you've ever heard on the news. I get your international news. I get your same education. I hear all the new scientific studies you do. There is no information on this earth that you can get that I cannot. Sorry, but I just despise the whole "poor uneducated Americans" attitude I get from just about anyone who specifically identifies themselves as European.

Lutz came last Spring to speak at the business school where I teach. We were all looking forward to some insightful comments from someone in a position to know something about business strategy. What we got instead was a puff piece of marketing slide powerpoints that was probably no different than the presentation he had given at a local DC elementary school that same day. We all left the presentation bewildered and shocked that we had just wasted an hour of our time. If this is the best that GM can do in terms of a strategy executive then God help the US Auto industry. Where's Carlos Ghosn when we need him......?????