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Ford Delays Enviro Report as Groups Pressure CEO

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By Bill Koenig

Dearborn, Michigan, June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. delayed release of a ``corporate citizenship'' report as Chief Executive Officer William Clay Ford Jr. comes under criticism from environmental groups that once considered him an ally.

The annual report on Ford's social and environmental programs, released in May of the two previous years, won't be ready until early July, said spokeswoman Francine Romine. The delay is in part because Chairman Ford, who became CEO of the No. 2 automaker in October, has been busy building his executive team and not because of disputes over content, she said.

Ford made headlines in 2000 and 2001 with reports in which he said sport-utility vehicles aren't as fuel-efficient or clean as cars and that automakers may have added to global warming. Now that he's the CEO too, Ford may be focused more on recovering from last year's $5.45 billion loss, an analyst said. A Sierra Club official now calls him ``just an other auto executive.''

``He's in a little different position now,'' said David Cole, executive director of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ``A lot of the money has gone away. If you don't provide products the market wants, you go out of business.''

One reason for the delay is because management time was taken up with last month's hiring of retired executive Allan Gilmour as chief financial officer, spokeswoman Romine said.

``Nobody's disagreed about where we should be going,'' said Romine, who declined to discuss what this year's report will say.

Shares of Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford rose 56 cents to $16.92 and have declined 32 percent in a year.

Environmental Group

Environmental groups criticized CEO Ford after the company joined other automakers in lobbying against increases in U.S. mileage standards for cars and trucks. The Sierra Club last week began an ad campaign to pressure U.S. automakers to boost fuel economy of their vehicles. The group said it was singling out Bill Ford because he portrays himself as an environmentalist.

``We want to try to encourage Mr. Ford to act more boldly'' on environmental issues, Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director, said in an interview.

Ford and rivals including General Motors Corp. opposed raising the standard for corporate average fuel economy, called CAFE, by as much as 50 percent. Had the legislation passed, CEO Ford said last month, it would have meant restricting the types of vehicles automakers sell and ``would have forced customers to do some unnatural things that they didn't want to do.''

The automaker still expects eventual increases in federal mileage standards, CEO Ford told analysts last month.

`Just Another Executive'

CEO Ford has become ``just another auto executive'' because of the CAFE issue, Daniel Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program, said in the June edition of Bloomberg Markets magazine.

The Sierra Club is pressuring Ford Motor in radio and television advertising because ``this company says it's the environmental car company,'' Becker said in a subsequent interview. ``This company aspires to be the leader.''

Ford's efforts to oppose the tighter mileage regulations were not ``reflective of the true creativity of this company and of Bill Ford's leadership,'' said Robert Massie, executive director of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, in a statement.

``Last year, Ford felt the issue of climate change was so important that they asked us to write something about it in their report,'' Massie said. ``We're anxious to see the starting place of this year's report, because the issue has certainly not gone away.''
 
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