Environmentally friendly cars not meant for college

By: Hannah Warren

Posted: 4/9/09

As I packed my duffel bag last night, excitedly preparing for my first trip home since January, I found myself debating whether to bring my car keys at all. This is by no means because I dislike driving - to me, accelerating on the sprawling highways of Pennsylvania is one of the best adrenaline rushes ever. (Yeah, cheap thrills. I take what I can get when I'm under parental supervision.)

But there is a not-too-pleasing aspect to driving at home. I don't speed around in a sexy Audi TT RS, or even a cute little Honda Insight. Nope. When I want to go anywhere, I do it soccer mom style, in my light blue, 1998 Ford Windstar. The thing is a tank of a minivan, decidedly female and affectionately dubbed "Baby Beluga."

Now understand, I'm not at all vain. It isn't the embarrassment of my hand-me-down Beluga that makes me avoid driving her. It's the sheer amount of smog that I can see coming out of the exhaust pipe that makes me cringe.

I don't like being hypocritical, especially when it's obvious. I'm the environmental columnist and I should take my own enviro advice. I should be driving around a spunky little hybrid car. So I set off to researching, trying to put together a convincing pitch for a new car to spring on my parents.

It turns out that there has been a relatively green fuel available to consumers for years, which has just recently begun to catch on. Compressed Natural Gas (the same stuff that heats buildings and ignites gas stoves) has been a common fuel for machinery in warehouses, because it burns so much cleaner than gasoline.

Honda has produced a version of its hugely popular Civic, called the Civic GX, which runs on CGN. Since its release, the EPA has lauded the GX as "the cleanest internal combustion vehicle in the world." What I want to know is why it took so long for this technology to develop and become commercially available.

We're suffering from an oil addiction, people. According to pickensplan.com, a Web site that proposes steps to reach economic independence from oil-exporting nations, we spent $475 billion on foreign oil in 2008 alone. There are 85 million barrels of foreign oil are produced daily, and each day the United States uses 21 million barrels.

The only problem with CNG technology is that it hasn't caught on everywhere, and owners of cars like the Civic GX have trouble finding places to refill in most areas of the country (like near my home, in Western Pennsylvania). For me, that nixed the GX, even after the EPA's recommendations.

Fortunately, the EPA also operates a web service that will spit out the most energy-efficient car for your location, transportation needs and desired green technology. According to the epa.gov, the highest rated cars for Pennsylvania were made my BMW, Volvo and Volkswagen. Not surprising, considering the enthusiasm for conservation overseas.

Before I lost hope for my future with a slick green car, I decided to check out what the EPA said about the hugely popular Toyota Prius. It was almost identical to the Honda Civic GX, except for the site's claim that it emits less greenhouse gas overall.

I, however, am skeptical about that. The Prius might emit less carbon dioxide when it runs, but only in certain conditions (like city driving, with lots of starts and stops). The battery technology has not been tested long-term or proven durable more than 100,000 miles; thousands of batteries could potentially end up in landfills.

It already takes a lot of energy and resources to manufacture new cars. Parts for the Prius are made all over the world - add the fuel it takes for the parts to reach manufacturing locations and the amount of energy that went into making them, and the picture isn't really so green after all.

In the end, the best option for the planet in my situation doesn't provide an escape from Baby Beluga. My parents were right to keep Baby Beluga running for as long as possible, because buying a new car before she quits causes unnecessary waste. Like my minivan, the enviro route isn't always so pretty, but I'm pretty sure I can roll with that.

Hannah Warren is a freshman magazine journalism major who loves oldies but goodies. Her column appears every other Thursday. She can be reached at hkwarren@syr.edu.