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Consumer Reports’ real-world mpg figures make the Prius even more appealing

Consumer Reports recently claimed that EPA's vehicle ratings routinely overstate how fuel-efficient cars and trucks are in real-world driving. For standard cars and trucks, the magazine says, EPA's ratings overstate real-world fuel economy by 30 percent. But for small hybrids, such as the Toyota Prius, they claim that EPA overstates actual miles-per-gallon by a hefty 42 percent. (Ouch.)

Now, I believe that there's reason to question Consumer Reports' figures. Of course, I have read a number of reports that the Toyota Prius doesn't actually get the EPA-rated 55 mpg in combined city/highway driving (though some people -- particularly those who've optimized their hybrid-driving habits -- get pretty close, and these folks actually squeezed out 110 mpg from their Prius, albeit in highly non-standard driving conditions). But I'd never heard any claim that the typical Prius averages just 32 mpg -- which is what the magazine's figures suggest. See this comment by WorldChanging's Jamais Cascio for a similar take.

But, just for the sake of argument, let's take the CR figures at face value, and assume that small hybrids' mileage really is overstated by 42 percent, vs. just 30 percent for regular cars. Doesn't the higher mpg reduction for hybrids suggest that their fuel-savings advantages vs. regular cars are overstated -- and that they don't save as much money as advertised?

Actually, no. As counterintuitive as it may sound, the Consumer Reports figures, on their face, actually bolster the economic case for buying hybrids.

The environmental take on Hurricane Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, it stirred up not just gale-force winds and untold misery, but a host of difficult environmental questions. How did heedless coastal development exacerbate the hurricane’s toll? What’s behind the socio-economic disparity in environmental planning — and emergency response to environmental disasters? Did global warming make the storm […]

Student journalists reflect on the New Orleans they once knew

As noted in today's Daily Grist (you do read the Daily Grist, don't you? Of course you do!), Fish and Wildlife Service staff are just getting to work assessing the ecological damage to two wildlife refuges near New Orleans: Bayou Sauvage and Big Branch Marsh.

I've never been to New Orleans or the Gulf Coast. I avoid places that might serve up more heat and humidity than I endure on the average August day in New York City; find blackened anything inedible; and own my heritage as a repressed Northeasterner who finds the whole Mardi-Gras-public-nekkidity-license-to-debauch thing a little scary.

But reading about places like Bayou Sauvage makes me really regret it. Below the fold, a description from some student journalists who attended the Society of Environmental Journalists' 2003 annual confab in New Orleans:

Umbra on windows

Dear Umbra, I just bought an old house and need to replace some of the windows. Are there alternatives to vinyl windows that will still cut down on heat loss? Noah WinerPhiladelphia, Pa. Dearest Noah, I hope I’ve caught you before you’ve placed your window order, because you are at a moment of opportunity. Window […]

The Times-Picayune files another missive

The editors of the New Orleans Times-Picayune pulled no punches on the dismal federal response to Hurricane Katrina in their first open letter to President Bush on Sept. 4. Today, they've done it again, timing a new missive to the President's third post-Katrina visit to the area.

The takeaway: We're not going away, Mr. President. Commit to doing whatever it takes to rebuild our city better than it was before -- including restoration of Louisiana's coast and the Mississippi River.

Here's an excerpt, emphases mine:

Bowen and baby

Two notes:

There's a fantastic story in Washington Monthly about coal-fired power plants and the latest efforts to control their damage. It focuses in on Plant Bowen in Cartersville, Ga.

In 2003, Bowen spewed more sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any plant in the United States. Bowen alone emits more sulfur dioxide than all the power plants combined in 12 states and the District of Columbia -- including large states such as California, Washington, and Oregon. And it would take more than three million cars to emit the 21.35 million tons of carbon dioxide Bowen's smokestacks belched out in 2003, according to the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

The point of the piece is that traditional environmentalist tactics are no longer working, as Bowen's continuing existence painfully demonstrates.

The old paradigm through which environmental activists tried to take on powerful and deadly polluters relied on three separate but equally important tactics: campaigns to stoke public outrage by linking the illnesses and deaths of particular victims to a particular polluter; aggressive lawsuits brought by the private torts bar; and prescriptive federal regulation to penalize non-compliant localities and industries. Yet the persisting pollution at Plant Bowen shows how ineffective the old paradigm has become in dealing with the most important emerging environmental threats to public health, from fine particle pollution to global warming to agricultural runoff -- all cases where it's difficult to tie specific polluters to individuals who have been harmed. Fortunately, changes now afoot at Bowen also point the way to a solution -- one in which a modernized regulatory regime uses market-like forces to let federal officials pick up the work that lawyers and environmental activists can no longer effectively accomplish.

I don't agree with everything in it, but this really is a must-read for those interested in environmental policy.

Secondly: I -- or more accurately, my wife -- had a baby on Friday. (Oh, I'm such an earth f**ker!) I'll be taking two weeks off, so posting will be extremely light, if not nonexistent. I hope our other contributors will slake your insatiable thirst for knowledge.

And other universal truths

When I saw the quick promo yesterday, I nearly burst into tears of gratitude. All this week, the Daily Show's theme is: Evolution Schmevolution. It'll be four nights of brilliance on a scientific "debate" that's one of our favorite topics. And four nights that will, if the past is any indication, educate 18- to 29-year-olds the world over.

Thank you, Jon Stewart. It's comforting to know there's intelligent life out there ... somewhere.

Nicole Rycroft, recycled-paper pusher, answers questions

Nicole Rycroft. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I’m the campaigns director for Markets Initiative. What does your organization do? We work to completely transform heavy paper-consuming industries in Canada (e.g., book, magazine, and newspaper sectors) — to shift them away from papers originating from ancient or endangered forests and to reduce their overall […]

Egrets, I’ve Had a Few

Feds start to assess ecological damage to refuges near New Orleans The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is beginning to gauge damage from Hurricane Katrina to the 23,000-acre Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge east of New Orleans and the Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain, home to the endangered […]

Touch and Goshute

Feds approve nuclear-waste dump on Utah tribe’s land On Friday, the Bush administration approved a controversial $3.1 billion plan for a massive temporary radioactive-waste dump on a Utah Indian reservation — a win for nuclear-power interests. A private firm and the sovereign Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians struck up the agreement for the repository, […]