The Ford Motor Company came under attack in the blogging world last week, for seemingly trying to have its cake and eat it too - or, more accurately, for trying to emit its carbon and appear to be doing something to stop global warming. Back in April, Ford signed a deal with TerraPass, a carbon offset provider, to give Ford buyers a chance to offset their emissions by purchasing a TerraPass with their car. The trouble is, Ford is a contributor to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which produced those ridiculous global warming denial ads that everyone's been up in arms over for weeks.

When the ads came out, TerraPass took Ford to task, calling, on their blog, for a response. Their suggestion was a public dismissal of the ad campaign, a severing of the company's ties to the CEI, and a quick end to the sales of gas-devouring Expeditions. Instead, they got some assurances from Ford that the company truly is committed to stopping global warming, and agreement that the ads were absurd - but no indication as to why the company funds CEI, when the institute is so committed to maintaining business as usual and convincing the public that global warming is a massive liberal hoax. On Salon.com, a Ford flack said merely, "We support them on certain issues, but we do not agree with them on global warming."

Ford is certainly not the first company to give with its left hand and take with its right. Most large corporations, for instance, give big chunks of dough to both political parties during presidential election campaigns. Which always strikes me as just so, I don't know, icky. But according to TerraPass, this little flap has at least provoked some debate among Ford employees. As a TerraPass-er wrote on their blog, "Turning a large ship takes time. If we can exert a little pressure ourselves, hopefully we can have a meaningful impact."