Feinstein focusing on global warming

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein delivered a lengthy, impassioned speech Wednesday about the need for this country, other nations and every individual to step up the fight against global warming.

Then she drove off in a gas-guzzling Lincoln Town Car.

Before she left the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the California Democrat also showed flashes of impatience with earnest-faced students who asked about her initial support for the Iraq war and refusal to participate in a debate before next month’s election.

If Feinstein seemed unconcerned about sending unflattering messages late in the campaign, it might be a reflection of her wide lead in the polls over Republican Richard Mountjoy, a former state lawmaker with little name recognition and even less money for the contest.

But Feinstein insisted that she takes Mountjoy’s challenge seriously, even while acknowledging that she is “very lucky I don’t have what you might say is heavy opposition.”

“I don’t take anything for granted,” she said.

This week, Feinstein began airing two commercials that appeared designed mainly to remind people that the 14-year incumbent is on the Nov. 7 ballot.

One ad features a before-and-after grandmother theme. It opens with Feinstein and granddaughter Eileen briefly watching a TV spot from the senator’s 1992 campaign, in which the girl is an infant in her grandmother’s arms.

Then, in a bit of stilted dialogue, Feinstein and Eileen agree that there is work to be done to reduce global warming and bring the troops home from Iraq.

“You could lead ‘Granddaughters for Feinstein!’ ” the senator says.

The other ad shows Feinstein against backdrops of desert, redwoods and beaches, and eventually an outer-space view of the planet. She pledges to safeguard California’s “natural heritage” and, again, to do more to combat global warming.

Feinstein campaign manager Kam Kuwata said the ads are necessary, despite the lopsided nature of the campaign.

“You would not believe how many times, when we’re moving around California, people would say, ‘You’re up for election this year?’ ” he said.

Neither commercial mentions Mountjoy.

In her speech Wednesday before Town Hall Los Angeles, Feinstein said she would introduce a legislative package next year to require a phased, 10-mile-per-gallon increase in average fuel efficiency for all passenger autos, and a cap on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Another U.S. priority, Feinstein said, should be persuading China to rein in its growing dependence on dirty-burning coal to produce electricity.

Feinstein did not sound particularly confident that the Democrats would take control of the Senate with this election.

“It’s very difficult; it’s possible,” she said.

Her aides said she would push for her global warming proposals even if Senate Republicans maintained their majority.

And spokesman Scott Gerber noted that Feinstein drives a Lexus hybrid at home.

The Town Car?

“That was a rental,” he said.

paul.pringle@latimes.com