Rainforest Action Network: Freedom From Oil Campaigners Drop 15-foot Banner on PENSKE-Owned Toyota Dealer
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 22, 2007
2:10 PM
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CONTACT: Rainforest Action Network
Sam Haswell,
Communications Director
(415) 659-0519
Brianna Cayo Cotter,
Communications Manager
(415) 659-0557
Cameron Scott,
Communications Manager
(415) 659-0541
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Freedom From Oil Campaigners Drop 15-foot Banner on PENSKE-Owned Toyota Dealer
Climate change activists, students and oil enforcement agents tell Toyota to stop driving war and global warming; two activists arrested
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DETROIT - October 22 - Climate change activists, students and the Freedom From Oil Campaign's Oil Enforcement Agency (OEA) unfurled a dramatic 15-foot banner on the Rinke Toyota dealership in Centerline, Mich. today. The group accused Toyota of "driving war and warming" and challenged mega-dealer Penske Automotive Group to demand that its suppliers - like Toyota - improve their fleetwide fuel economy and reduce global warming pollution.
The banner was draped from Rinke Toyota for 20 minutes before police removed it and arrested two of the activists for trespassing.
Said Mike Hudema of Global Exchange: "Toyota can't have it both ways; Toyota can't call itself an environmental leader while fighting legislation to curb greenhouse gas pollution and accelerating into the truck market."
With more than 300 dealerships and hundreds of maintenance and service outlets, Penske Auto Group is a mainstay of the automobile industry. The Freedom From Oil Campaign is urging Penske to join mega-dealer AutoNation in taking "soft orders" for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, publicly supporting an increase in fuel efficiency standards to 40 miles per gallon by 2012, and setting a goal to increase the fuel economy of all vehicles sold at its dealerships.
"Our dependence on oil is the leading cause of war and climate change," said Jodie Van Horn, a campaigner for Rainforest Action Network. "For our planet, our national security and our children's futures, it is time for mega-dealers and the auto industry to stop saying what they can't do to improve fuel efficiency and to start shifting into high gear and offering real solutions."
Car and truck tailpipe emissions are a leading cause of global warming, accounting for a quarter of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, consumers are shifting from gas-guzzling SUVs to more fuel-efficient vehicles en masse. The Freedom From Oil campaign is pressuring mega-dealers to take the demands of their customers to the auto industry.
This morning's protest coincided with No War No Warming actions taking place on Capitol Hill today, in which hundreds of activists from anti-war, justice and clean energy groups are highlighting the connections between resource wars and global warming.
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