The Detroit Project: See the new commercials!

Dear Friends,

The anti-SUV ad campaign you helped create, which we have named
The Detroit Project, is unveiling our two 30-second ads (entirely
funded by your contributions) at a press conference in Los
Angeles at 10am this morning. The ads are available at
www.detroitproject.com. Also on our website will be a letter you
can send to Detroit's automakers, a form to fill out for those
dumping their SUVs, and a paypal link so that we can raise more
money and buy additional air time. The ads will start running on
the political talk shows this Sunday in major markets around the
country.

All the best,
Arianna

Road Outrage: How Corporate Greed And Political Corruption Paved
The Way For The SUV Explosion

By Arianna Huffington

America's automakers have finally sputtered into first gear.

Responding to the growing public outcry over its reckless
gas-guzzling ways, the auto industry used the Detroit Auto Show
this week to unveil a line-up of "coming soon to a showroom near
you" hybrid vehicles -- including a number of hybrid SUVs.

The question -- though I'm willing to bet no one at the car show
asked it -- is: What took them so long? After all, cars powered
by a combination of gas and electricity have been around since
1905, when the Woods Motor Vehicle Co. offered a dual-powered
model.

And while Detroit's sudden interest in hybrids after a
near-century of neglect is certainly a step in the right
direction, given the fact that many of the prototypes on display
in the Motor City won't be on showroom floors for years -- if
ever -- it's fair to wonder just how decisive a step it is.

It's one thing to make a big show of rolling out glittering
"concept models" intended for future production -- or to promise,
as GM did, to have a million hybrid vehicles for sale by 2007 "if
demand is high" -- and quite another to commit the marketing
resources necessary to create the high demand. Time will tell if
the industry has really fallen in love with this new/old kid on
the block or if the industry's embrace of hybrid technology is
just a one night stand, a here-today-gone-tomorrow defensive
gambit for the PR cameras.

We have ample reason to question the sincerity of the industry's
stated intentions. Anyone remember the Supercar, that 80 mpg
marvel that was supposed to hit the road by 2004 but instead
managed to eat up $1.5 billion in taxpayer money before being
abandoned on the side of the highway? Or the FreedomCAR, the Bush
administration's equally lame "responsible vehicle" partnership
with Detroit? Both highly touted programs allowed automakers to
look like they were sweating blood to improve fuel efficiency
while doing everything in their power to convince consumers to
buy more and more fuel-inefficient -- and hugely profitable --
SUVs.

For a good indication of Detroit's real plans, we need look no
further than this week's L.A. Auto Show. (Yes, I'm a regular on
the auto show circuit.) There were as many hybrid cars on display
as there were rickshaws. And in full page newspaper ads headlined
"What's Up At GM?" the auto giant bragged about having "once
again shattered the record for SUV sales, topping the million
mark for the second consecutive year -- propelled by breakout
vehicles like the one-of-a-kind Hummer H2."

The sales deck is clearly stacked in favor of Detroit's beloved
behemoths, with billions being spent on SUV advertising and
ever-more tempting marketing come-ons, like GM's "Zero, Zero,
Zero" program which was introduced in December and offered
no-interest financing on 13 of its SUVs for up to 60 months --
very tempting in these tough times.

Of course, Washington continues to do its part by holding SUVs to
lower fuel efficiency and air pollution standards than passenger
cars. Our politicians have even refused to close a deeply
misguided tax loophole that rewards buyers of extra large -- and
extra wasteful -- SUVs with extra large tax breaks.

Think of that: at a time when our leaders should be touting the
importance of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, the people
being given a financial incentive to purchase a new vehicle are
those buying fuel-chugging SUVs.

"I was surprised," said Karl Wizinsky, a health care consultant
from Michigan who just bought a giant Ford Excursion even though
he admits he doesn't really need it, "that a $32,000 credit on a
$47,000 purchase was available in the first year. I mean, it is a
substantial credit." Yes, it is. And it's created a substantial
-- and artificial -- demand.

It's the kind of lunatic public policy that makes you want to
slam on your brakes and scream out your car window: How can this
kind of thing happen?

The answer is as simple as it is distressing: special interest
money has once again trumped the public interest. That's why the
auto industry was able to turn its back on hybrid technology for
so long, and why our politicians refuse to this day to demand
that the auto industry change its hydrocarbon-loving ways.

The numbers tell the story: the auto industry spent close to $37
million on lobbying in 2000. And you can bet that money wasn't
spent trying to convince Congress to designate a "Windshield
Wiper Appreciation Week." Although I'm sure Congress would have
been glad to oblige if its deep-pocket pals in Detroit had only
asked. After all, the industry has donated over $77 million to
federal candidates and the political parties since the 1990
election -- with $12.5 million doled out during the 2002 election
cycle.

It also doesn't hurt to have very good friends in very high
places. Before becoming White House chief of staff, Andy Card was
an executive at GM, and before that, the chief lobbyist for the
Big Three auto makers. And you wondered why the administration
has thrown its considerable weight behind GM's efforts to
overturn a California law requiring carmakers to put more
energy-efficient models on the road?

Because of the corporate takeover of our democracy, Washington
has remained firmly stuck in the Dark Ages of energy policy. Bill
Clinton came charging into office promising to raise fuel
efficiency standards to 45 miles per gallon but left without
having increased it one inch per gallon. And why George W. Bush
can try and score points by proposing to raise the ludicrously
low SUV mileage standard by an equally ludicrous 1.5 mpg over the
next four years.

It's also why the Big Three, once again, have to play catch up
with Toyota and Honda, which have been putting out hybrid cars
since 1997. How ironic that if American car buyers want to do
something truly patriotic, they have to buy Japanese to do it.

So Detroit has sensed -- belatedly but still ahead of the
slowcoaches in Washington -- that public opinion is shifting --
and has taken some baby steps toward meeting the rising demand
for more socially responsible cars.

Now it's up to all of us to make sure that the pressure and the
demand continue to grow. Otherwise, the auto industry will gladly
underfund and under-advertise its hybrid models, allowing them to
crash and burn -- yet more "proof" that American consumers don't
really care about anything other than their precious SUVs.

And that would suit those gas-guzzlers in Detroit -- and those
cash-nuzzlers in Washington - just fine.

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If you have questions or comments, please contact me at
arianna@ariannaonline.com.