The "environmentally friendly, climate change" Bernie Sanders took an SUV and a private jet to go visit the President. Hypocrisy or not?

So, my question is how many of the staff and secret service people were in the SUV?

I don't know. I see articles that get posted with trivial things like this that I believe don't matter. There is plenty to look at and take issue with the policies that Senator Sanders promotes. Whether or not free post-secondary schooling makes sense, expansion of social security, breaking apart too big to fail banks, whether or not Dodd-Frank is effective, etc.

Little gotcha things like this are little more than Straw-man arguments and distractions from important issues. How about the Defense Budget, do we need to spend $48 bn on 12 new boomer boats for the Navy, what are realistic climate change initiatives, how do we keep Social Security solvent or do we, do we need a new AUMF for operations against ISIS, should the AUMF of 2001 be replaced, etc.

Call me an idiot, but I don't think that the MPG of the vehicle Bernie rode in today really matters.

CPT John Sheridan - Good comments.

sanity prevails.

Sarcasm noted

Possibly a train? They could secure a couple of cars for him. If you are truly concerned with climate change he would find a way. And the Secret Service recommends what a candidate does, the can not force them. I saw President Bush, Laura, and Sec Rice get out of the car to shake hands and the Secret Service was not happy he was walking the streets and shaking our hands. BTW the way my whole family got to shake hands with all of them!

Take a train everywhere like they did around the end of the 19th cent. With the current campaign schedule that really isn't a pragmatic solution for a candidate if they want to get elected. I find it hard to equate the use of a plane with not being committed to the idea of climate change. Real hypocracy would be if he got elected than than made no effort or progress to make a change. Riding around in a Suburban is a bit of a reach IMO

I'd pay to see that. It would be the first time in his life that he actually worked for something

So, let's examine the alternatives.

LAX to DCA 2311 miles.

Picking a medium haul wide-body commercial airframe, let's look at the Airbus A340-300. Fuel efficiency is about 72 mpg/seat. So a flight from LAX to DCA consumes 32 gallons of fuel/person.

Compare to a Gulfstream G200 with 12 seats. Average fuel burn rate is 233 gph. 4.5 hours flight time uses 87 gallons of fuel per person.

Carbon footprint of jet fuel is about 21.1 lbs/gallon. So the carbon from the G200 is 1836 lbs and carbon from the A340 is 675 lbs.

Road distance is 2,660 miles. Riding at 14 mph that's 190 hours. At 653 calories per hour, that's 124,000 excess calories for the bike ride. Average carbon footprint of 189 calories/lb of carbon means 660 lbs of carbon released for the bike ride.

According to Ben & Jerry, the carbon footprint of their ice cream is about 2 lbs/pint. So, anyone that is pro-environment must be a hypocrite if they choose to travel versus stay home and eat a pint of Americone Dream.