Bob Lutz, don't let the door bang you in the backside on your way out of the building.

As reported in this excellent post at Solve Climate, General Motors Denier-in-Chief and Vice President for New Product Development is being excused from duty - accepting retirement to make room for Tom Stephens, the executive who has been leading the development of hybrid technology at GM.

Lutz has been GM's leading dinosaur, the reigning champion of GM's obsession with the fuel-guzzling muscle cars that helped Toyota become the number one automaker in the world.

If you doubt that Lutz is inflicted with a fantasy gene, check the comments that he wrote on his Fastlane blog under the headline, "You're not rid of me yet" (he's actually hanging around in one diminished capacity or another till the end of the year):

"If Congress wants a sacrifice, it should be me."

- GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz

We don't often agree with GM's head of product development, but on this point, Bob Lutz has a point.

As we reported the other day, Lutz is the quotable character who is struggling to position GM as a conscientious green company, even while continuing to deny climate change and to blame his company's disastrous condition on everyone but management.

In his most recent gaffe, Lutz told CBS News today that whoever is charged with monitoring the U.S.  government's auto-industry bailout should look harshly on the negative impact caused by California fuel regulations.

Among the most galling visions, as U.S. carmakers stand cap-in-hand before the American people, is the site of a preening GM Vice President Bob Lutz pretending to be green.

Lutz is firmly on the record as someone who is too lazy, too ideologically hidebound or just too stupid to look at the latest robust and frightening science of climate change. He has dismissed global warming as "a total crock of shit," saying that he puts his faith in the signatories of the laughable Oregon petition.

Lutz has tried to reassure us in the past by saying, "My thoughts on what has or hasn’t been the cause of climate change have nothing to do with the decisions I make to advance the cause of General Motors." Which raises an interesting question: why would Congress bet billions on a policy maker who would dismiss out of hand the biggest environmental crisis in human history, and then go on making self-destructive decisions that drive his company to the brink of bankruptcy?

"Free-market" capitalists seem to be an endangered species in this bruising era of economic accountability. As the Big Three automakers loiter in the lobbies of the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament, begging for handouts, everyone seems to be avoiding the question of why the taxpayer should have to prop up these losers.

Click on this hilarious video and you will hear comedian Stephen Colbert asking if global warming is being caused by "sunspots" and GM vice-chair Bob Lutz answering:

"... in the opinion of about 32,000 of the world's leading scientists, yes."

The reference in what is otherwise a lighthearted comedy segment demonstrates the toxicity of the climate change denial movement.

General Motors Corp Vice Chairman Bob Lutz has defended remarks he made dismissing global warming as a "total crock of shit," saying his views had no bearing on GM's commitment to build environmentally friendly vehicles.

On GM's Fast Lane Blog , Lutz writes:

Never mind what I said, or the context in which I said it. My thoughts on what has or hasn’t been the cause of climate change have nothing to do with the decisions I make to advance the cause of General Motors."