Making A (Slightly) Greener Hummer

GM vows alt-fuel hummers, and a diminutive (well, sort of) H4 General Motors will build new Hummers that run on diesel fuel or ethanol blends, and unveil a more fuel-efficient H4 as part of its response to finger-pointing as the environmental bad boy and impending new fuel economy standards. The Senate has already backed an increase to fuel efficiency that would require GM to boost the average economy of its fleet from about 25 mpg to 35 mpg. The gas-guzzling Hummer would lose its exemption from the calculation, making the H2's measly 13 mpg a regulatory liability. The push by Hummer will make at least one fan happy: Arnold Schwarzenegger. The California governor's environmental ethic is all about having just as much fun, without all that guilt (and pollution). An alternative fuel Hummer is up his alley, if not that of many traditional environmentalists. The conspicuous excess embodied by the giant off-road truck won't, after all, disappear if it can run on ethanol, according to a story in the July 1 Newsday.