Not So Green? Bloomberg Takes SUVs to Subway

Aug. 1, 2007 — -- Mayor Mike Bloomberg has joined the ranks of politicians accused of talking the talk but not walking the walk when it comes to the environment.

The walk in question is from his home to the subway station.

Bloomberg's strong environmentalist agenda and well-publicized habit of taking a subway to work most days made headlines for a different reason today, when The New York Times revealed that he actually drives 22 blocks in a police-driven convoy of two SUVs before hopping on a train.

By taking a ride in that mini caravan of Chevrolet Suburbans to an express stop at 59th Street rather than walking to a local train station just minutes from his East 79th Street home, Bloomberg joins the ranks of Al Gore, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton as politicians who have had their public green credentials called into question by their private actions.

In doing so, he has received barbs from environmentalists who accuse him of undermining his own message and conservatives who charge him with concealing the true cost of his environmental policies.

For the billionaire mayor, the appearance is rather worse than the reality.

His SUVs ride on ethanol, a more environmentally-friendly alternative to gasoline, so the emissions aren't as noxious as those from your average gas-guzzler.

And for security and emergency purposes there are always vehicles following the mayor, so the SUVs, which are owned and operated by the New York Police Department, would be following the mayor on his path to work whether he was in the car or on the subway.

"Were there a hybrid vehicle that met the NYPD's requirements for him, we would get one," Stu Loeser, the mayor's spokesman, told ABCNEWS.com.

While the mayor should be praised for encouraging people to ride the subway by becoming a straphanger himself, the fact that he's cutting corners undercuts his message, said John Coequyt, an energy policy specialist at Greenpeace.

"To me, the problem is that as he's championing congestion pricing and other things that are essential to the city, but he's losing support because he's not willing to walk four blocks to the subway and then transfer," Coequyt said.