In a truly amazing act of Spitzerian judicial caprice, California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer is suing GM, Ford, Daimler-Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan for having the audacity to sell vehicles that emit carbon dioxide. He might as well sue California motorists for breathing, since that too emits carbon dioxide.

Hollywood producer Stephen Bing also spent $40 million to push Proposition 87, which would sternly tax any companies still foolish enough to drill for oil in California. In addition to being a terrific gift to Iran and Venezuela, this scheme would also dole out political grants and subsidies for "alternative fuels" and "energy-efficient vehicles" (he happens to have invested in a company producing electric cars, which means they would usually run on coal).

When it comes to greenhouse gases, alternative fuels are usually more problem than solution. Fermentation to produce ethanol increases carbon dioxide emissions, and producing energy-intensive crops to convert into ethanol increases nitrous oxide emissions. The resulting fuel also makes vehicles 30 percent less energy-efficient.

Ethanol subsidies and California air regulations are openly hostile to energy-efficient vehicles. Unlike nearly all Americans, Californians will not even be allowed to buy the extremely clean new diesel cars and fuels -- such as the fast and luxurious E-class diesel Mercedes, which gets 37 miles per gallon on the highway and 27 in the city.

When it comes to locating the sources of global greenhouse gases, regardless of their overall source or impact, the total insignificance California's cars and light trucks is quite simple to calculate.

The International Energy Agency estimates that the United States accounts for 21.8 percent of all carbon dioxide resulting from fuel combustion (rather than from evaporation of the ocean, forest fires, volcanoes, fermentation and breathing). Since California accounts for 13.3 percent of national GDP, the state's share of global carbon dioxide emissions is therefore 2.9 percent.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation accounts for a third of carbon dioxide emissions, but personal vehicles account for just 60 percent of that -- or 20 percent of the total (half as much as electric power plants).

In other words, all the passenger cars and light trucks in California account for one-half of one percent of global carbon dioxide due to fuel combustion -- a trivial matter in comparison to coal-fired power plants and factories in China.

California's pretentious posturing about changing the world's climate through stern regulation for some and lavish grants for others provides a suspiciously preposterous example of technological provincialism. Perhaps the interests involved are not quite as cosmic and high-minded as some would like us to believe.