HEADLINE:
Consumers can drive cleaner cars right away
BYLINE: Jim MotavalliSpecial to The Plain Dealer
BODY: DRIVING GREEN
In
1950, there were just 50 million cars on the world's roads. Now there are 600
million, and the auto population is growing faster than the human population. We
are expected to have 1.2 billion cars by 2025.
Sure,
cars are fun, and we need them. But they're also responsible for half of the
smog choking our cities and a fourth of the greenhouse gases generated in the
United States. So, it is worth considering how to pick one that does the least
damage.
Let's start with fuel economy. Information on
fuel economy is listed on the window sticker of each vehicle. It is also
available from the Environmental Protection Agency, which rates fuel use in city
and highway driving for all models sold in the United States. The complete list
is available at www.fueleconomy.gov
In addition to
saving money at the pump, better fuel economy helps the
environment. For example, switching from a standard compact car that gets
22 miles per gallon to an environmental champ like the 52-mpg gas-electric
hybrid Toyota Prius more than doubles fuel savings. But it also cuts emissions
of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons by 97 percent, carbon monoxide emissions by
76 percent, and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50 percent.
Plus, the Prius is fun to drive, seats four, and is a
company-subsidized bargain at $20,000. Toyota officials concede that they
actually lose money on each Prius, a situation identical to that faced by Honda
with the Insight, which is also a gas-electric hybrid. But Honda and Toyota want
to get more experience with the new technology, so they bite the fiscal
bullet.
Practicality matters
Of course, few consumers will buy a car based on its environmental
attributes alone. That's one reason that the Prius has a waiting list while the
two-seat Honda Insight hybrid is more easily available, although it gets better
fuel economy.
So, one approach is to pick the type of
vehicle you need and then look for the model that is most environmentally
friendly. For looking at different categories of vehicles and how the vehicles
compare for fuel economy and emissions, I recommend the Green Book.
The Green Book is a guide issued annually by the
Washington-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. The Green
Book is available online at www.aceee.org
If you don't
have a computer at home, most public libraries have computers with access to the
Internet.
Better and best
As
you look through the different categories of emissions in the Green Book, you
will see that not all vehicles are created equal. There is a minimum federal
standard for emissions that all automakers must meet. But some go beyond the
minimum.
If you are concerned about the environment,
you should choose a vehicle that will at least meet the Low-Emission Vehicle, or
LEV, standard, which is twice as stringent as the federal Tier 1 rating, the
minimum.
The real low-emissions standouts, like Honda's
natural gas-powered Civic GX, are Super-Ultra-Low Emission Vehicles, or SULEVs.
Emissions data is sometimes indicated on a window sticker, particularly if the
automaker is proud of it.
The Green Book winners
include the Prius and Insight, of course, but also such non-intuitive choices as
Volkswagen's New Beetle, the Honda Accord, Saturn L100 and L200, Chevrolet
Venture minivan, and Dodge Ram Van 2500 (full-size van), and the Pontiac
Aztek.
The loser's list is full of exotica, including
the Ferrari 550 Maranello (a miserable 8 mpg in city driving) and Lamborghini
Diablo (10 mpg), but also such expected sport-utility villains as the Ford
Excursion (11 mpg in town) and Lincoln Navigator (12 mpg).
The federal government also posts its own clean-car guide at
www.epa.gov/greenvehicles
The Environmental Defense
group also has its own evaluations included in a "tailpipe tally" to be found on
the internet at www
.environmentaldefense.
org/programs/PPA/vlc/vu.html
If
you are willing to take a vow of vehicular cleanliness, you should know about
the Clean Car Campaign. It is a coalition of environmental groups that includes
ACEEE, Environmental Defense and Michigan's Ecology Center.
So far, it has persuaded 95,000 consumers to sign the "Clean Car
Pledge," a commitment "to buy the greenest vehicle available that meets my needs
and fits my budget."
The pledge - online at
www.cleancarcampaign.org - calls on manufacturers to build vehicles that are 50
percent more fuel-efficient than others in their class, meet SULEV standards and
are manufactured using nontoxic recyclable materials.
Motavalli is editor of E: The Environmental Magazine and author of
"Forward Drive: The Race to Build 'Clean' Cars for the Future," as well as
"Breaking Gridlock: Moving Toward Transportation That Works," both of which are
published by Sierra Club Books/Random House.
Document 471 of 803. 