Bet you’re used to hearing about how bad McDonald’s stance towards the environment is, about how the corporation razes the rainforest to make room for cattle and creates millions of tons of waste each year. But have you heard the latest? A new McDonald’s restaurant opening in North Carolina on July 14th will have a station to charge your electrical car in the parking lot.

Yup, it’s true. You’ll soon be able to order a burger and charge your car at the same time. Granted, it’s just one restaurant out of the more than 30,000 McDonald’s around the world. And electric cars probably won’t even be on the roads in any great number until 2011. At this point, it seems more of a symbolic gesture than anything that will impact change.

But you’ve gotta start somewhere, right? Give McDonald’s credit; it’s installing the first charger of its’ kind in the United States. Plus Ric Richards, the owner of the innovative McDonald’s in Cary, North Carolina, has gone even further and constructed the entire building using environmentally-friendly materials. I’d say that’s a step in the right direction.

What do you think? Is this just a PR campaign to divert attention from McDonald’s appalling environmental record? Is it too early to impact real change? Or is it a sincere effort to clean up their track record and pioneer a new era of environmental responsibility?

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