Obama's 5-Ton Limo Exempt From Green Car Policy

President Obama this week rolled out some ambitious goals toward making the federal government's fleet of cars more fuel-efficient, but his critics are likely to have fun with one thing in particular: His big limo is exempt. (Drudge has been highlighting the exemption with an upside photo of the president.) It's a matter of practicality, explains the Detroit News. Nicknamed the Beast, the thing weighs more than 5 tons and has armor thought to be 5 inches thick. No hybrid or plug-in need apply, at least in the near future.

As for the rest of Obama's plan: He wants all federal cars bought by 2015 to have advanced technology—think hybrids, electric cars, or alternative fuel vehicles. The latter category would include so-called flex fuel cars that can run on ethanol. The president noted that the government owns a 600,000-car fleet. "That means we've got a lot of purchasing power. So what we're doing is we're using it to boost clean energy technologies." (More President Obama stories.)