The Greens are excited about hybrid cars and there seems to be a cheer that goes up every time we hear a story of somebody who got fed up with their gas guzzler and bought a Mini or Prius or any other vehicle that was more energy and environmentally-friendly. I am in favor of improving our environment too, but I don’t see this trading of an SUV for a green car as having a measurable impact on either gas consumption or lowered pollution. Where the hell do you think those gas hogs are going? For the green argument to work, the vehicle being sold has to just be written off and sent to the big green junkyards in the sky. Think about it. Do you think that a 3-year old SUV that might have a market value of $20,000 and get 15 mpg is just going to be demolished for the sake of cutting into Big Oil profits or making the Sierra Club dreams come true? Nope - someone is going to buy it and drive it and use the same amount of gas and pollute just as much as the person that had it before. Maybe the new owner of the SUV gets rid of their car that might have even worse gas mileage or worse emissions and there will be some trickledown net benefit. But if that old clunker still rolls, someone is going to buy it and on-and-on it goes.

Buying a more efficient or more environmentally-friendly car is a great thing. But just like President Bush’s offshore / ANWR drilling plan, it isn’t going to make an immediate impact. Over many years and many cycles of car trade-ins, it might have a measurable effect. Hopefully, before then we will have come up with a better national transportation system and alternative energy systems to replace our existing fleet of cars. Unfortunately for every new green car that is purchased there are thousands (if not millions) of people that cannot afford to sell what they have, regardless of how much they want to. More importantly, many Americans are in real financial trouble as they cannot afford the gas consumption of their existing car or the cost of fixing their fuel issues and they certainly don’t have the $15,000-$20,000 for a used Prius or an SUV that just appeared on the used car lot. Sorry - the green junkyard is a myth as much as I wish it were true.