Senator Dean Florez disclosed in the hearing that one of the
state-owned vehicles was wrapped in General Motors’ national ad
campaign, "live green, go yellow," and driven to the GM booth at a
private conference by a state employee on state time.

The San Jose Mercury News published documents
revealing that E85 vehicles were added to the contract "per the
Governors request," that state officials had agreed to a pilot project
with General Motors one month before the deal was even officially put
out to bid, and that the contract was designed with requirements that
only General Motors could meet.

General Motors’ long financial history with the governor includes:

– $47,000 in campaign contributions the company made to the governor’s
ballot measure committee, re-election, and 2007 inaugural committee;

– The use of six General Motors vehicles and drivers during a trip to
Japan just a few months before California purchased the flex-fuel cars
from the automaker;

– $15 million in cash and goods (Hummers) given to Schwarzenegger’s
nonprofit, Inner City Games, also known as After School All-Stars and
Arnold’s All-Stars;

– Schwarzenegger had the first military Hummer converted for civilian use and acted as the monster car’s first spokesman;

– The loan of a Hummer that can run on hydrogen as a prop for a press conference on Schwarzenegger’s "hydrogen highway" plans.

The GM program was promoted as an example of the administration’s commitment to environmental protection, but the cars never ran on alternative fuels and actually produced more air pollution than those they replaced.