GM in Talks With Environmental Group

The environmental group that helped persuade McDonald’s to package its food in paper instead of foam has begun discussing ways to cut air pollution with General Motors.

The Environmental Defense Fund, an organization unique among environmentalists for its willingness to align with corporations, said the project will be partially funded by a two-year, $200,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation in Chicago.

The announcement was only lightly applauded by other environmental organizations, who said they hoped that the discussions would lead to reform--but not at the expense of consumers and not by undermining current air quality regulations and legislation.

“I welcome their entry into the discussion,” said V. John White, legal adviser for the Sierra Club of California. “But I would hope that they don’t think they’re going to trade away on programs we already have in place.”

A similarly cautious Gladys Meade, environmental health director of the American Lung Assn. of California, said that her organization “would be supportive of the agenda so long as the purchaser or consumer was not made to pay.”

But EDF Executive Director Fred Krupp defended the proposal as one that would reveal “a mutual interest between environmentalists and automotive manufacturers . . . coming up with government policies that stimulate auto makers to come up with new cars, but don’t add cost to consumers.”

Topics of discussion will include global warming, ozone levels, automotive emissions and fuels. Within these categories, GM spokesman Jack Dinan said that two specific subjects to be intensely scrutinized are the elimination of older, heavily polluting cars and the “cost effectiveness of vehicle emissions standards.”

It is that focus on issues now regulated by the Clean Air Act that has prickled other environmentalists.

Over the last few years, the EDF has diverged from many environmental organizations by concentrating on economic and market incentives rather than regulatory measures.

While the group’s success in persuading McDonald’s to reduce its use of polystyrene drew widespread praise, its recent alignment with GM threatens to further distance the group from other environmentalists.

“The question is, what exactly is going to come out of it, and what deals are they cooking up?” asked Mary Nichols, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.