When you had Boone on the Tonight Show, you mentioned that you were going to convert a ’57 Cadillac of yours so it would run on natural gas.
It’s very simple. The technology is already out there, and it’s been out there for ages. There’s a guy named Dick Guldstrand – he’s an old racecar driver – and he built a natural gas Corvette. This was 10 or 15 years ago. But he made all the papers because now you have something that’s better, faster, and, wow, it pollutes less than everything. You know everybody says they want to help, but when it comes right down to it, they don’t want to unless it’s less work for them. So you almost need to make it so easy for people that they don’t have to do a lot of lifting.

Most of the heavy lifting has already been done, hasn’t it?
That’s right. Honda for 10 years has been quietly building natural gas Honda Civics and Honda cars and they sell okay. Nothing crazy because they just look like regular cars and they blend in so well people have no idea that they’re running on natural gas.

That’s a good start, isn’t it?
It’s not enough. We live in a time when people only see certain things as sexy. Right now the electric car is considered sexy, and the hydrogen fuel cell is considered sexy. For some reason, natural gas doesn’t have the cachet.

You guys have the largest bus fleet in the nation on natural gas, don’t you, out there in L.A.?
That’s my point. What’s the least way to impress a woman in L.A.? Pull up in a bus.

Point well taken. What do you suggest?
Here’s what you need to do. I have a car that I debuted at SEMA a couple of years ago. They’ll have it again this year. It’s a jet-powered car, 750 horses, and we run it on bio-diesel fuel. We made a tremendous impression with it because it’s fast, it’s sleek, and, wow, it saves gas. It runs on bio-diesel. You need to have a Corvette or a Ferrari or just a high-powered vehicle that was faster on natural gas than it was on regular fuel.

In 2001 I demonstrated a hydrogen car, BMW’s hydrogen car. I drove it up to the platform at Warner Brothers in front of an audience and left the car running. While the car was running, I put a glass under the tailpipe. I spoke for 25 minutes about hydrocarbons, and everybody’s eyes glazed over. At the end of my speech I went over and took the glass, which was now filled with water, and drank it. And it was like, whoa, look at that.

Everything I said went in one ear and out the other, but when I drank the water – admittedly not the best-tasting water – but when I drank the water and it was not harmful and it was fine that made a huge impression. And that’s almost what you have to do with natural gas because it’s not a subject that fascinates someone unless you’re a petrohead.

You’re a big believer in the WOW factor.
Nobody’s impressed if you pull up in a Ford or Econo-box and you say you’re getting 40 miles per gallon. Nobody’s impressed. We’ve all seen that. I mean why is Sarah Palin popular now? Because she’s attractive.

INTERVIEW CONDUCTED, CONDENSED, AND EDITED BY ERIC O’KEEFE