Hybrid Hysteria
The hype surrounding hybrid vehicles is starting to grate on me. The environmental movement, along with armies of well-meaning yet ignorant people, would have us believe that you are a better person if you drive a Toyota Prius than if you drive a Hummer H1. The environmentally conscious hybrid driver, it is believed, uses less fuel, thereby helping the environment, reducing dependence on foreign oil, and so on. Let’s look closer at the flimsy logic behind such thought.
Hybrids use fossil fuel alone as their energy source. They are called “gas/electric hybrids”, but in the end, only gas is going in. There are no solar panels, no places to plug them into the wall outlet, no miniature nuclear power plants, not even pedals or a sail; just a hole to pour the gas into. The electric motor in a hybrid is used to aid fuel economy under certain circumstances, mostly during in-town driving. So ignore the fact that one car is a hybrid and another isn’t. All you need to know is the fuel economy. A plain old Honda Civic will beat any hybrid SUV all the time, and probably most hybrid cars on the interstate.
Who cares about MPG though? Do you really get the most “greenie points” for driving the car with the best MPG rating? Maybe you do, but doesn’t it make more sense to talk in terms of total gallons consumed? Why in the world would it be better to drive 100 miles round trip in a Honda Insight every day as opposed to driving a Suburban two miles? The guy in the Suburban is using less fuel, but the environmentalists still probably won’t let him into their club. Hell, it seems that the enviro fashion statement you make by driving a hybrid would put you higher on the greenie food chain than riding a bicycle. The government will pay you to buy a hybrid; will they pay you to ride your bike?
Having made these points, I’ll now say the the whole premise that it’s good to use less fuel is idiotic anyway. In the first place, burning fuel in your car is only one of many ways you consume it. Why dwell on that? Every time you buy something you are causing fuel to be used, either because the item got directly shipped to your house, or because it got shipped to the store where you bought it. On top of that, half the stuff you buy uses petroleum as an ingredient in one form or another. Am I a better person if I burn less fuel in my car, but then spend my fuel savings on other things?
Maybe we need some sort of greenie metric to grade people with. It would somehow be related to how much “stuff” (not just fuel, right?) you cause to be consumed, or perhaps your marginal contribution to the total demand. The winner would be a guy who lives in squalor in a hole in the woods. No, scratch that; the winner is the one who just kills himself right away.
Am I kidding? Most normal people consider it a good thing if you can convert resources into useful things that make peoples’ lives better. People who do this make money by purchasing a resource at a low price, adding value to it, and pocketing that difference when they sell. Environmentalists seem to be saying, “that’s all fine, except for the part where you buy things and use them. It’s better if there is no demand for things and nothing is used”.
Consider a hypothetical person who trades his Suburban for a Prius. Now he spends less on gas at the pumps (assuming he doesn’t just drive more), so he has extra money in his pockets. Is he going to throw it away? Surely he’ll spend it on something else. I challenge you to tell me how he can spend it without utilizing resources, if not petroleum itself. Anything he buys needs to be shipped from where it was made. And it has to be made from something. He could buy services or take a vacation, but the transportation “problem” is still there.
His only option is to throw his money away, or more likely, not work in the first place. Or he could just kill himself.
The price of fuel is set by market forces; supply and demand. It costs more when it’s hard to get and when more people want it. But why is it bad to want what you want? The hysteria surrounding hybrid vehicles and fuel economy boils down to the notion that it’s bad to want gas for your car; that fuel is different from other products on the market. When I buy gas, I’m paying my way; I’m paying someone from Exxon to pump it out of the ground, refine it and ship it to my local gas station. What’s it to you? It only affects you if you want to buy gas also, because the price is higher. It seems kind of hypocritical to blame others for wanting what you yourself also want. Or maybe you just wish demand was lower so your own bill would be less?
With that in mind, I’ve changed my position. All you people should start using less fuel. Ride a scooter to work, or better yet, a bicycle. I really want you to. That way it won’t cost as much for me to drive to work in my full-size pickup with an empty bed and nobody in the passenger seat.