Lutz: GM to End World's Dependence on Oil
"When will the [economic] pain go away?" That's what Newsweek asked their "Business Roundtable Experts," including GM Car Czar Bob Lutz. Maximum Bob begins by affixing blame: it's big oil's fault. Rising oil prices affect the price of everything because oil "goes into making virtually everything." Fair enough. And then Maximum Bob's off, talking about the "short-term disruption in [GM's] growth caused by rising oil prices." Growth? Seems Bob's suffering from half-zeimer's, conveniently overlooking the fact the GM started losing market share and sales long before oil prices rocketed upwards. Anyway… "Fortunately… we are a global producer, and we're well positioned in the rapidly growing economies of China, Russia, India and Latin America." Yes, despite GM's cash flow problems and mounting debt, "we're going to increase our R&D spending to expand alternative fuel solutions and advanced technology solutions to lessen and ultimately eliminate everyone's dependence on petroleum." [emphasis added] Of course, Mr. Lutz doesn't mention where they'll get the energy to generate all of the electricity or produce all the hydrogen and ethanol for these "alternative fuel solutions." But at least these remarks put him at the front of the pack for next year's Bob Lutz Award.
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Glad he pointed out oil does go into everything, especially GM's pla-tastic interiors. Eliminate everyone's dependence on petroleum? Aside from alternative fuels, I'll welcome the day GM gets back into interiors made from wood and leather... but I ain't holding my breath.
What's Lutz going to fuel his fighter jets with? Bio-kerosene?
@Detroit You can't really believe what you're writing, I hope. It's not as if the oil companies haven't been trying - they've spent billions on exploration and search, billions and billions. Chevron spent 18 billion in one year. The problem comes back to how we've been using that oil - and we should be ashamed. I've owned three 4.0l Cherokees, so I really should give it a thought. Lutz, however, has been inordinately clueless to what was happening, and now sounds silly because he clearly doesn't believe in what he's saying. It's just propaganda disconnected from reality.
GM has it pegged its future squarely on ethanol. They have bought into 2 companies looking to produce from non food crop sources. Coskata actually is building a plant and should have it online next year. There is a good article on it here: http://www.biomassmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=1736 It is a demonstration plant to prove their concept, so it will only be producing 40,000-gallon-per-year there, but they contend it will work on a larger scale and produce $1 a gallon ethanol. They are just looking for partners to pay for the cost of a larger plant. They have also invested in Mascoma ( not sure of their status). Lutz obviously believes in these investments and has put his mouth where GM's money is