Fred, I agree with you that private jets have disproportionately high environmental and financial costs. My point is limited to the idea that flying private jets under the current emergency situation facing the auto companies far outweighs the specific environmental and financial costs incurred from that travel.

Private air travel, in general, is extremely wasteful. However, if the decision was between the discrete emissions from these specific flights, and losing time that could have been spent trying to save one of our country's biggest industries from imminent collapse, I think it is appropriate to fly private.

Like I said though, I'm very unsympathetic to these CEOs and am critical of private jet travel, in general.

But I do believe the media can blow these things a bit out of proportion, as I also argued here yesterday:

http://forcechange.com/2008/11/18/the-ap-misses-t...

That is an interesting point you make about the concierge services that airlines now offer. I wasn't familiar with that, but it wouldn't help for flight delays that often occur once a plane is already on the tarmac or in flight.
Jacob

Scott, thanks for the feedback on Howard. It'll be interesting to see how Obama's cabinet unfolds.