Last night during the Oscar telecast, host Jon Stewart joked to the audience, "Whoever owns the Boeing 707 parked on La Brea Avenue, your landing lights are on." As actor/aviator John Travolta ran onstage and bolted through an exit, Stewart comforted the glitterati, telling them, "Don't worry, it's a hybrid."

Now, while John Travolta is a pilot and really does own a Boeing 707 (finished in classic Quantas livery, as seen here, parked at his home in a private "fly-in" community), the company does not make hybrid jets. Boeing is, however, exploring electric engine starts and, more recently, biofuel-powered jets with Virgin Atlantic. You can watch a video with Branson talking about the Virgin biofuel jet below the fold. For the second year in a row, NRDC also worked with Oscar to reduce the show's ecological footprint with energy coming from wind farms and biodiesel. The Independent Spirit Awards, however, drank Oscar's milk shake by using an even greener power source: Ed Begley Jr.

[Source: NRDC]

While General Motors is providing a fleet of seventy-five alternative fuel vehicles. including fuel cell Equinoxes, and flex-fuel and hybrid Tahoes to shuttle the special people to the Oscars red carpet, others are finding their own rides. Among them is Cameron Diaz who will be getting dropped of in front of the camera line by a BMW Hydrogen 7. The H7 is a equipped with a dual fuel system that allows the V-12 engine to run on either gasoline or liquified hydrogen. Like other hydrogen-fueled internal combustion vehicles the H7 emits pretty much only water (and some trace amounts of NOx) when it's running on hydrogen. BMW's decision to follow the internal combustion path allows them to utilize their engine expertise, but the result is far less efficient than a fuel cell. Using liquid hydrogen also allows them to carry more hydrogen on board, but the insulated storage tank is much larger and heavier and the hydrogen boils off and must be vented to atmosphere. Still, celebs like the car a trend Brad Pitt helped start last summer.


[Source: BMW]

Now that the writer's strike is over, we can worry about the details of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (the Oscars) instead of whether or not they'll take place at all. GM released a statement today (available after the jump) saying they'd ferry celebs around the awards show and parties in a fleet of over 75 vehicles. That fleet will include: GMC Yukons (in both hybrid and E85-capable flavors) and the hydrogen fuel cell Chevy Equinox. GM said that, "this year's Oscars will be the first major awards show where a fleet of fuel cell vehicles will provide transportation for celebrities." Watch the background of all those red carpet shows on Sunday, February 24 to see if the vehicles get a bit of screen time.