Environmentally Friendly?

A letter to the editor printed in OMR about Apr. 07

I know there are several of you die hard environmentalists who have teamed up with the other anti- big oil enthusiasts to exhort and propel (no pun intended) the hybrid car dream. Please keep dreaming but consider your worst nightmare as well. The Toyota Prius seems to be the favorite hybrid. The nickel in the cars battery is mined and smelted in Canada where the extent of environmental damage around the plant has provided NASA with a ‘dead zone’ on which to test its moon rovers. The factory has spewed sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario. Acid rain around the area was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down the hillside, according to Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin. After leaving the plant, the nickel makes an around the world trip before it even makes it into a single battery.

According to a study by CNW Marketing, the total combined energy to produce a Prius is greater than what it takes to produce a Hummer. They considered electrical, fuel, transportation, materials, and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetimes. The conclusion was that the Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile during its 100,000-mile life span compared to the $1.95 per mile of a Hummers expected 300,000 miles.

That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use almost 50% less combined energy doing it. So, buy a Prius and charge the economy (another pun not intended), or buy a Hummer and save your cash for an acid rainy day.