Appearing this morning on ABC’s This Week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) lectured the nation on the importance of driving fuel efficient vehicles:
STEPHANOPOULOS: And I was struck by the San Francisco Chronicle that said, Get used to $3 a gallon a gas, say the experts. Is that your message, too, that people just have to get used to this?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, not really. I think that we have to fight that. And I have encouraged people here in this state that we should fight back”¦
STEPHANOPOULOS: How do you fight back?
SCHWARZENEGGER: Well, we have to buy vehicles that are fuel-efficient”¦We want to inspire people to buy cars that are fuel-efficient, and also drive less, do more carpooling and so on. Because remember, the oil price is all based on supply and demand.
It was a curious argument from the man who literally brought the Humvee, the most fuel inefficient civilian vehicle on earth, to the roadways:
The partnership of Schwarzenegger with the Hummer brand is like no other celebrity/manufacturer relationship. The muscle man is a legitimate player in a game that paid off with the actualization of the Hummer product line. While filming “Kindergarten Cop” about a decade ago, Schwarzenegger saw a fleet of military HMMWV/Humvee vehicles rolling down the street. He had to have one. Since the Humvee was a military-only vehicle, Schwarzenegger initiated talks with the manufacturer, AM General Corp., and the U.S. Army. Those discussions resulted in the civilian Hummer.
Arnold owns five gas powered Humvees and is still driving them. Here’s a picture of him cruising in a Humvee last year:
GM has loaned Arnold a sixth Humvee that runs on hydrogen but he is “still ushered around in a state fleet of armor-plated, gas-burning Chevy Suburbans”