Cecil Adams tackles the ridiculous claim that will emerge in email boxes and lunch room counter conversations for the next few years: namely, the assertion that a Prius is worse for the environment than a Hummer. Umm, no, no it isn't. Thanks for playing. George Will and Rush Limbaugh are both utter idiots. Cecil Adams employs slighty more wit in his response, but comes to the same conclusion.
I read an article stating the Prius has a worse impact on the environment than a Hummer because of the enormous pollution created in making the car’s batteries …What about the Prius and its allegedly grim environmental impact? The cause of the controversy seems to be a report called "Dust to Dust" by Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research. The report claims a Prius has a higher lifetime energy cost than a Hummer, an assertion cited by George Will in 2007 in his syndicated newspaper column. But the report is ludicrous. It evidently was self-published, lists no authors, quotes no technical literature, never explains its methodology, and contains numerous unsupported and often bizarre assertions. (Sample: a Prius will have a life span of only 109,000 miles whereas an H1 will last for 379,000 miles, apparently the basis for the contention that the Hummer’s per-mile costs are lower.) Only a fool or a commentator with an ax to grind would take such nonsense seriously.
The same can be said of another anti-Prius yarn circulating over the past year. It originated with an article last spring in the Mail on Sunday, a UK paper, blaming the Prius for devastating environmental damage around a plant in Sudbury, Ontario, that processes the nickel used in Prius batteries. The story was grossly wrong; the major damage occurred more than 30 years ago, long before the Prius. Pollution has since been reduced 90 percent and the region reforested. The Mail yanked the piece off its Web site with an apology, but not before the usual knuckleheads picked it up, folded in the "Dust to Dust" drivel, and spread the result everywhere. Rush Limbaugh is said to have read on the air a version of the story that appeared in a fricking student newspaper.
[From The Straight Dope: Are electric cars really more energy efficient? Do "green" vehicles have a worse impact on the environment than a Hummer?]
I don't own a Prius, but if I owned a car, I'd own a Prius or similar vehicle. And yes, I am a liberal, and a card-carrying ACUL member too, but I don't drink lattes (lactose-intolerant, don't ya know).
