The American auto industry evokes irrational romantic feelings of Yankee ingenuity, the protestant work ethic, and quite hollowly “The American Dream”. Granted the auto industry, in its heyday, provided a unique opportunity for extremely industrious Americans without advanced degrees to ascend into middleclassdom. This era is over. Our auto industry is no longer competitive for a number of systemic reasons; the high cost of unionized labor, massive debt burden, high turnover at senior levels, varied incentives of shareholders. How does this relate to Green Business? The link is not very self evident. Many argue that higher emissions standards will kill the American Auto industry. Foreign companies will be compelled to meet the same standards. This argument implicitly recognizes the inherently vulnerable position of the Big 3. If the current environment persists the fate of the industry is inevitable. At some point we must realize that our auto industry is no longer competitive and should not handicap environmental policy.