This week California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into a law a first of its kind Global Warming bill. The law set limits on emissions of greenhouse gases. The intent is to reduce the emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. However, just because lawmakers are willing to stand up and vote for such a law, it doesn't necessarily mean they practice what they preach.
The governor, for example, openly supported the bill, but he gets transported around in a Ford Excursion which gets about 11 mpg at best. In addition, he always has an escort of California Highway Patrol cars. The hypocrisy as usual extends across both sides of the legislative aisle. Co-author of the bill Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, gets around in a 2003 Ford Explorer that's provided by the state. Two other Democratic assembly members who voted for the bill, Dario Frommer and Rebecca Cohn, both get around in Jeep Grand Cherokees, which, while they have tremendous off-road prowess (you know for getting up down all those dirt trails in the back yard of the capital), get the worst mileage in their class.
It's not all gas-guzzlers in Sacramento. Twenty-seven of the 120 members of the state assembly are now driving hybrids. Democratic assemblywoman Fran Pavley, another co-author of the global warming bill, drives a Toyota Prius.
[Source: San Francisco Chronicle]
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