Chickpea,
Not to throw in any more monkey wrenches into this thread, but did you see the article written by Matthew Christ, a senior at South Walton High School in this past Walton Sun (page A9)?
BTW, I find the article and this thread to be very coincidental!
Underlined is the part I found most interesting... and no, I don't drive a Hummer.
America needs more environmentally friendly car options
Last month, the Toyota Prius, the poster car for all wannabe tree huggers sold the highest level of units for one month, a total 24,009 cars, making it the ninth best selling car in America for the month of May.
This record number helped hybrid cars capture two percent of the total automotive market in America, a fi gure that many industry experts believed would never be achieved until after this decade.
This is absolutely horrible news.
Americans are being duped out of their money. Toyota lured the public into thinking that the Prius is an economical, environmentally friendly car, when it plainly isn?t.
Obviously, I dislike Priuses. I think they?re uglier than dead catfi sh, and worst yet, fraudulent.
The basic premise on why one would buy a Prius, is that they would be helping the environment. This is just rubbish.
The Prius is a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle, meaning that the car emits minimal and cleaner than normal emissions. This fact would certainly satisfy most suburban environment-conscience buyers, and it does. But there?s something that they need to know.
There is a term used in the automotive industry called ?energy cost,? which measures the energy needed to build, drive, sell and even dispose of a vehicle. The energy cost is a fi gure that is incredibly hard to find. Fortunately for the American consumer, there are people out there that do not fi nd data analysis as boring as I do. CNW Marketing Research, an independent company based out of Oregon published energy cost findings in December of last year.
And just what did they fi nd?
The energy cost for a Prius is high, with an average cost of $3.25 per mile, higher than a Hummer H1, which comes in at $1.95. Again, the energy cost covers multiple variables.
The high energy cost of the Prius is primarily caused by the construction of the car. For instance, the energy cost of a Prius would include the energy needed to produce the nickel for the battery that aids in propelling the car. The nickel used in the Prius is mined from a vain out of Sudburry, Ontario. The process to convert that nickel to a medium that can be used by the Prius is a 10,000-mile trek that would give any environmentalist a coronary.
Yet to sample: the nickel is first mined, then smelted, and when the process is fi nally fi nished the environmental impact only leaves the Sudburry factory even more biologically drained. In fact, the Sudburry nickel plant has created an environment surrounding the plant that is so desolate, so sparse, that NASA now uses it to model what conditions are like on the moon. The environment in the Sudburry area was not like this before the plant began catering to the Prius.
I readily admit that if you drive the Prius the way that it was supposed to be driven (think of how the world?s oldest person would drive) it will achieve exceptional gas mileage. And yes, the emissions ratings are superb, but that only takes into account the energy of the car while being driven, not the energy that was wasted to create the Citroen wannabe Prius.
When we take this ?hidden energy? into account, the Prius becomes a hugely uneconomical car, and very eco-unfriendly. It makes the Prius driver look as foolish as the Hummer H2 driver, (do they really take those Hummers off road?).
This country came to an energy crossroad 30 years ago. At that time, we had a choice to make. We could continue our addiction to oil or we could find an alternative energy source. We chose to continue the wretched addiction. Today, more than a quarter-century later, with gas prices rising and the stability of oil sources in question, we stand at that same crossroad again.
So the Prius technology isn?t as environmentally friendly as we would like to think. Yet, this country still needs to find a way to transport itself, which is economically and ecologically friendly, so what do we do?
Solar technology isn?t fully developed, so for now at least, that?s out of the equation. Hydrogen technology is currently being developed extensively by the BMW AG group, but unless the technology can be safely accessed, don?t plan on buying a hydrogen BMW anytime soon. The same applies towards E-85 ethanol. Currently only a sprinkling of fi lling stations that offer E-85 have sprung up across the country, and I don?t expect many more since the price of corn products is linked to the supply of E-85 ethanol.
Another alternative is electricity. Tesla Motor Corporation is a private business based out of California that will begin to offer an electric sports car later this year, which will accelerate faster than the top Ferrari model and drive for over three hours on a single charge. While this technology is promising, and in this columnist?s view potentially viable, it is still costly. Unless you have $100,000 to spend on what is basically still a concept car.
So where does this leave us? Diesel. Clean diesel technology is not only viable but available. Current diesel cars can achieve exceptional mileage, which lessens our dependency on foreign oil, and have relatively clean emission ratings with low energy costs ? all without sacrificing engine performance.
True, it may not have the cachet of the Toyota Prius, but then, it doesn?t carry the premium price tag either.
Or the ugliness.
Matthew Christ is a senior at South Walton High School and a resident of Santa Rosa Beach. You can contact him at thewaltonsun@gmail.com.
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YOUNG WISDOM
Matthew Christ
Not to throw in any more monkey wrenches into this thread, but did you see the article written by Matthew Christ, a senior at South Walton High School in this past Walton Sun (page A9)?
BTW, I find the article and this thread to be very coincidental!

Underlined is the part I found most interesting... and no, I don't drive a Hummer.
America needs more environmentally friendly car options
Last month, the Toyota Prius, the poster car for all wannabe tree huggers sold the highest level of units for one month, a total 24,009 cars, making it the ninth best selling car in America for the month of May.
This record number helped hybrid cars capture two percent of the total automotive market in America, a fi gure that many industry experts believed would never be achieved until after this decade.
This is absolutely horrible news.
Americans are being duped out of their money. Toyota lured the public into thinking that the Prius is an economical, environmentally friendly car, when it plainly isn?t.
Obviously, I dislike Priuses. I think they?re uglier than dead catfi sh, and worst yet, fraudulent.
The basic premise on why one would buy a Prius, is that they would be helping the environment. This is just rubbish.
The Prius is a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle, meaning that the car emits minimal and cleaner than normal emissions. This fact would certainly satisfy most suburban environment-conscience buyers, and it does. But there?s something that they need to know.
There is a term used in the automotive industry called ?energy cost,? which measures the energy needed to build, drive, sell and even dispose of a vehicle. The energy cost is a fi gure that is incredibly hard to find. Fortunately for the American consumer, there are people out there that do not fi nd data analysis as boring as I do. CNW Marketing Research, an independent company based out of Oregon published energy cost findings in December of last year.
And just what did they fi nd?
The energy cost for a Prius is high, with an average cost of $3.25 per mile, higher than a Hummer H1, which comes in at $1.95. Again, the energy cost covers multiple variables.
The high energy cost of the Prius is primarily caused by the construction of the car. For instance, the energy cost of a Prius would include the energy needed to produce the nickel for the battery that aids in propelling the car. The nickel used in the Prius is mined from a vain out of Sudburry, Ontario. The process to convert that nickel to a medium that can be used by the Prius is a 10,000-mile trek that would give any environmentalist a coronary.
Yet to sample: the nickel is first mined, then smelted, and when the process is fi nally fi nished the environmental impact only leaves the Sudburry factory even more biologically drained. In fact, the Sudburry nickel plant has created an environment surrounding the plant that is so desolate, so sparse, that NASA now uses it to model what conditions are like on the moon. The environment in the Sudburry area was not like this before the plant began catering to the Prius.
I readily admit that if you drive the Prius the way that it was supposed to be driven (think of how the world?s oldest person would drive) it will achieve exceptional gas mileage. And yes, the emissions ratings are superb, but that only takes into account the energy of the car while being driven, not the energy that was wasted to create the Citroen wannabe Prius.
When we take this ?hidden energy? into account, the Prius becomes a hugely uneconomical car, and very eco-unfriendly. It makes the Prius driver look as foolish as the Hummer H2 driver, (do they really take those Hummers off road?).
This country came to an energy crossroad 30 years ago. At that time, we had a choice to make. We could continue our addiction to oil or we could find an alternative energy source. We chose to continue the wretched addiction. Today, more than a quarter-century later, with gas prices rising and the stability of oil sources in question, we stand at that same crossroad again.
So the Prius technology isn?t as environmentally friendly as we would like to think. Yet, this country still needs to find a way to transport itself, which is economically and ecologically friendly, so what do we do?
Solar technology isn?t fully developed, so for now at least, that?s out of the equation. Hydrogen technology is currently being developed extensively by the BMW AG group, but unless the technology can be safely accessed, don?t plan on buying a hydrogen BMW anytime soon. The same applies towards E-85 ethanol. Currently only a sprinkling of fi lling stations that offer E-85 have sprung up across the country, and I don?t expect many more since the price of corn products is linked to the supply of E-85 ethanol.
Another alternative is electricity. Tesla Motor Corporation is a private business based out of California that will begin to offer an electric sports car later this year, which will accelerate faster than the top Ferrari model and drive for over three hours on a single charge. While this technology is promising, and in this columnist?s view potentially viable, it is still costly. Unless you have $100,000 to spend on what is basically still a concept car.
So where does this leave us? Diesel. Clean diesel technology is not only viable but available. Current diesel cars can achieve exceptional mileage, which lessens our dependency on foreign oil, and have relatively clean emission ratings with low energy costs ? all without sacrificing engine performance.
True, it may not have the cachet of the Toyota Prius, but then, it doesn?t carry the premium price tag either.
Or the ugliness.
Matthew Christ is a senior at South Walton High School and a resident of Santa Rosa Beach. You can contact him at thewaltonsun@gmail.com.

YOUNG WISDOM
Matthew Christ