CNW Hybrid Vehicle Efficiency Study?

Don't buy that hybrid!

Hybrid cars actually use more energy than gas guzzlers. At least, that is what CNW Marketing Research Inc. would have you believe. If every American drove a Hummer, instead of a Prius, America would use less energy overall! (P.S. - I also have some great land I'd like to sell to you.)

What nonsense.

It has been demonstrated that if every American drove a Toyota Prius hybrid car, for example, America could stop importing foreign oil.

If every American; on the other hand, drove a Hummer we would significantly increase foreign oil dependency. Yet, CNW would have Americans believe that a Hummer is actually more efficient than a hybrid.

CNW derives its Energy Cost by totaling the "energy necessary to plan, build, sell, drive and dispose of a vehicle from initial concept to scrappage. This includes such minutia as plant to dealer fuel costs, employee driving distances, electricity usage per pound of material used in each vehicle and literally hundreds of other variables."

Well, since hybrids aren't mass produced at the same level as conventional vehicles, this automatically creates extra SHORT TERM costs. If hybrids were produced in the same quantities as conventional vehicles, many of these extra costs would not exist. Moreover, over time the production of any vehicle becomes more efficient.

Additionally, the electric components of hybrids - many of which are the foundation of fuel cell vehicles - are expensive to dispose notes CNW. While this might also be true, this again is largely due to the newness of the technology. Many of these components will eventually be recycled. Anytime there is an emerging technology, different processes are required and take time to develop. Furthermore, the advancement of hybrid batteries alone will change dramatically in the next decade.

Not long ago, computer parts were not recycled, now huge businesses are being built around recycling computer components. Perhaps, computers were also a bad invention compared to the efficiency of pen and paper - a computer is less energy efficient!

Using CNW's logic, America's answer to foreign oil dependency and to pollution is simply to do nothing, as every experimental vehicle, such as hybrids or fuel cell vehicles, will always take more energy to produce in the short term. Obviously, since there are fewer hybrid suppliers, for example, chances are those hybrid supplies will have to be shipped further - taking more energy.

Using CNW's logic, invention and technological advancement are evil things. Since supply chains for new technologies seldom exist, their creation will ALWAYS, INITIALLY, be less efficient. Therefore, the status quo is always best, well, at least in the short term, but who really cares about the future?

Nonetheless, I cannot help but wonder how much CNW determined that it costs the U.S. to maintain a military presence in the Middle East every year to protect our oil habit? How much energy do all those destroyers and air craft carriers cost the 'overall efficiency' of conventional vehicles?

Did CNW also add the billions and billion of dollars of medical costs that can be directly attributed to vehicle emissions - the same emissions that hybrids SIGNIFICANTLY reduce?

I won't even get into the ultimate costs of global warming.

So get out there and buy a Hummer, it's an investment that can save America from foreign oil dependency while protecting the environment! (Now about that land.)