GM, now bound at the hip to the federal government that stripped away debt holders, took a chunk for themselves, tossed the rest to the autoworker unions, and kept most of the execs that made the mess in the first place, made a first move to show it's new corporate responsibility.
As hundreds of thousands of clunkers head to the scrap yard, General Motors Co. has dropped out of a partnership that collects toxic parts from recycled automobiles to prevent mercury pollution.
It turned it's back on all the mercury pollution it put on the streets and into fishing and drinking water for the last 20 years...
GM said its new company is not a member of the partnership because it no longer makes vehicles with mercury switches and is not responsible for the older vehicles. The old company, which is still under bankruptcy court supervision, said it is reviewing agreements involving the former company and declined to comment.
Just a wild guess, but that's probably not what taxpayers expected when GM became a public stepchild, but detroitnews.com reported today they will do exactly that.
Maybe it's not a big deal? How does 36 million mercury switches strike you?
The auto industry partnership, called the End of Life Vehicle Solutions Corp., or ELVS, was created in 2005 to prevent mercury emissions from being released into the environment when vehicles are crushed and shredded. It works closely with the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program, which the Environmental Protection Agency helped form with automakers, the steel industry and environmentalists in 2006.
GM pumped in $700,000 to $1 million a year to the program that recovered 2.5 million switches and disposed of nearly 5,600 pounds of mercury. With GM refusing to pay and participate, ELVS may cease operations for lack of funding, making it more difficult for recyclers to dispose of mercury recovered under the $3 billion "cash-for-clunkers".
The rational of the new "Government Motors"? Sharon Basel said the new automaker "has never produced vehicles with mercury switches and has no mercury switch responsibility under the terms of the bankruptcy court order."
So taxpayers and unions who own the company now will change this and make it right?
Tim Yost, a Motors Liquidation spokesman, declined to comment about the partnership, saying the old company has been analyzing its nearly 500,000 contracts and agreements, "including this one."
Outrageuous. After taking tens of billions of dollars from the taxpayers, let them eat mercury.
The Truth About Cars, a car review web site has picked up on this today. Their summation:
With cash-for-clunkers keeping crushing yards humming, this is going to be one of the busiest years on record for the ELVSC. In short, the perfect time to lose a major funding source. You stay classy, GM!