Detroit, Mich. — “This is a new GM that’s mean, lean . . . and green!” shouted Michigan’s Green governor Jennifer Granholm this morning as GM announced its emergence from Chapter 11 under government ownership. A close ally with the Obama administration, Granholm’s emphasis on “green” tells you exactly where the new owner’s priority lies.

And company execs get the message. AP reports that “the company is looking into changing the background color of its corporate logo from blue to green in an effort to show consumers that it is leaner and greener, more focused on fuel efficiency.”

Taxpayers who have a $50 billion vested interest in the company might prefer that the green represented profit. But as long as the feds control GM (and that’s going to be a while), GM is about saving the planet first, the bottom line second.

“Henderson has set clear rules: Every model must make money,” reports the Detroit News even as the company’s priority car is the $40,000 plug-in electric Chevy Volt, a vehicle neither the company, nor the government’s Auto Task Force, expects to make money.

Meanwhile, June sales figures show that GM’s hottest product was — not the government-favored small Chevy Aveo or any of the company’s eight hybrid models — but the testosterone-pumping muscle car, the Chevy Camaro.

Perhaps the one note of good news out of this mess is GM’s announcement Thursday that Bob Lutz — the product czar who revived the company’s design image with cars like the Camaro and Chevy Malibu — has decided not to retire after all.