Articles by David Roberts

New Ford hybrid SUV

Ford recently announced their second hybrid SUV, the Mariner. What I'm saying is, when's the hybrid minivan coming? There's got to be a huge market, no? Take me, for instance. As the patriarch of a growing clan of resource-sucking, overpopulation-contributing children, a minivan looms large in my future. I'd love to be able to show-off my eco-credentials while porting around my clan and their inevitable sports gear, musical instruments, academic awards, etc.

My god, I think I lost half my remaining manhood just by writing that sentence.

Anyway, if you're curious about the Mariner, the place to find more, as with all matters green and automotive, is Green Car Congress.

Update [2005-2-9 12:27:47 by Dave Roberts]: Ah, have y'all heard of this site "google"? It's quite nifty. Anyway, turns out there's already a hybrid minivan on the Japanese market (shocking, I know), and according to HybridCars.com, a hybrid Toyota Sienna may be headed for the U.S. market as early as 2007. Good to know Japanese automakers continue to kick our asses in this department.

Make all U.S. farming organic?

The Land Institute runs a program call the Prairie Writer's Circle, which brings together writers who cover sustainability issues in agriculture (and related issues). They distribute their op-eds free of charge. We get them frequently, and I always like them, but we rarely have the space or resources to get them up on the site.

However! Thanks the magic of blogitude, I shall start running the ones I like here. To kick it off, here's an essay about how all -- that's right, all -- farming in the U.S. should go organic within 10 years.

More budget

Green Car Congress has a good breakdown of energy spending in Bush's budget -- think nuclear and fossil fuels -- and Geoff Hand has more.

These regs, not those

Honda joined in the lawsuit against California, trying to stop the state from instituting its own fuel-economy regs. To make it up to enviros, the company just asked the feds to tighten fuel-economy regulations. It doesn't object to regs, it says, just different regs in different states.

If fuel-economy regs are really harmful to the economy, harmful to automakers, as the Bush admin. says, Honda's behavior seems awfully peculiar. Why, it's almost like they know something Bush doesn't!