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Environment: Feeling a bit smug about owning that hybrid? Better rein in that contempt for those who still drive primitive conventional cars. It seems that a Hummer is more ecologically friendly than a Prius. Yes, the Hummer will burn much more gasoline and discharge more emissions than a Toyota Prius driven the same distance. But a car's ecological footprint — if we may twist an environmentalist phrase — is more than just fuel mileage.

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer. Snip-------------------- When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s...

SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT- Hummer vs. Prius You would do better in a Hummer. Manufacturing the Toyota Prius involves a shocking amount of pollution. A plant in Ontario, dubbed the "Superstack," mines and smelts the nickel for the Prius' battery, each of which then travels to Europe, China, Japan and the United States. How many Prius miles would it take to offset those trips? Canadian Greenpeace energy coordinator David Martin says the vast amounts of sulfur dioxide released over northern Ontario cause acid rain, which in turn destroys plants in the area, resulting in mudslides. In fact, the surrounding environment is...

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer. Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius. The Prius is powered by...

Sunday November 26, 2006 By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) A Toyota Motor Corp. executive engineer who was described as the ``American father of the Prius'' and among the country's top experts on gas-electric hybrid vehicles died in a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, officials said Sunday. David Hermance, 59, was piloting an experimental plane when it went down around 1:20 p.m. Saturday about 50 yards off of Los Angeles' San Pedro area. A search team found the wreckage of the two-passenger Interavia E-3 aircraft submerged in 60 feet of water Sunday morning, said county Fire...

by Mark Finkelstein July 11, 2006 Here at NewsBusters, we keep close tabs on the MSM. That's why I can say with considerable certainty that this morning, the Today show ran its . . . nth segment on 'soaring gas prices.' The template is time-honored: reporter standing in front of gas pumps with scary-high price placard in background. Cut to clips of regular folks filling up, expressing varying degrees of outrage. Bring in an 'oil industry expert' for some words of wisdom. Back to reporter at pump, warily wondering just how much higher prices can go. Conclude with hosts back...

In about 13 years Toyota has gone from a brainstorming session to creating and selling and teaching the world there is another way. 1993 - Toyota initiates the G21 project to develop a small car with better mileage that can be sold anywhere in the world. 1994 - Executive VP Akirhiro Wada insists the car needs to set a new standard for mileage and recommends a hybrid engine. 1995 - The Prius prototype debuts at the Tokyo motor show-- but will NOT start. Toyota responds by moving up the production deadline by one year. 1996 - Toyota's US division wins...

Toyota hybrids have hit the ceiling - the tax break ceiling. The limit of 60,000 cars was surpassed already, BUT, because of some funky law, buyers have until Sept. 30th to buy a Prius and still qualify for the $3,150 government tax credit. After that they can only get half a credit. Qualifying for the credit is easy -- finding a Prius is the hard part. I got an email from a fellow in Canada who says they have a bunch of them just sitting around. Would anybody like to fund bringing them here to the Bay area of San...

Toyota is planning to voluntarily recall about 2/3 of the Prius cars they have made. Someone in Japan learned that when you turn the steeling wheel and drive real slow into a curb, it can break something in the steering mechanism. Trust me, you drive very slowly in Japan a lot, with the steering wheel turned all the way the left or right. Usually, its bad business for a car company to do something like this. However, Toyota is sucking it up, making the changes on their own dime BEFORE a tire blows out, or a car rolls over and...

Felix Kramer is on a mission, one that carried him and his new plug-in Toyota Prius hybrid to the steps of Capitol Hill. There he and representatives of Electro Energy, which brought along their own plug-in Prius, showcased to some of Washington's most powerful politicians, from Orrin Hatch to Hilary Clinton, technology that can help make America less dependent on petroleum: cars that can get 100 mpg. The event -- organized by SetAmericaFree.Org -- was planned to coincide with an announced summit between the White House and Detroit's beleaguered carmakers. Although the meeting was postponed at the last minute by...

Expect something amazing from the next Toyota Prius — like fuel economy that pushes past the 100-mpg barrier. Due in two years as a 2009 model, the next Prius is set to be an evolution, company sources say. The hybrid will retain the same basic 1.5-liter hybrid drivetrain. But Toyota is now on a mission to do two things: drive the economy ratings skyward, and cut the associated costs by 20-30 percent.

What should consumers look for to figure out the best model for the environment -- and their pocketbook? Consumers have had a hard time figuring out if gas-electric hybrid vehicles are worth the sticker prices, which are thousands more than their gas-only counterparts. It turns out even Consumer Reports has trouble calculating the true value and savings associated with buying and operating hybrid vehicles.

It is indeed a sad day when peasants in Russia have so much to teach us peasants in California about social activism. But look what's happened in Moscow, where average folk got fed up with priority access to the road system: in a textbook nonviolent protest, the trigger point came when commoner Oleg Scherbinksy was sentenced to four years in prison for causing an accident by not getting out of the way fast enough when a government official, commandeering the road, sped by. In response, a thousand citizens in 500 cars took a Sunday drive, moving slowly through the streets...

Oscar nominees Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal and Frances McDormand are among those expected to step out of green vehicles and onto the red carpet at the Academy Awards ceremony Sunday. In all, 25 VIPs are participating in the fourth annual "Red Carpet, Green Cars" event sponsored by Toyota Motor Corp. and the environmental organization Global Green USA. McDormand, Phoenix, Gyllenhaal, Jennifer Aniston and George Clooney are all expected to arrive at the Oscars in Toyota or Lexus hybrids, including the Toyota Prius, Lexus RX crossover and a hybrid version of the Toyota Camry, which goes on sale in May. Event...

We at the Toyota Motor Corporation are writing to address certain misconceptions that have arisen about your Toyota Prius model, which we are proud to note is driven by many celebrities, including Prince Charles and HBO's Larry David. Our pioneering gasoline-electric hybrid, introduced in 1999, has become an object of adoration to the world's enlightened car buyers. Our competitors, including America's Big Three, are rushing out hybrid vehicles of their own..

RUSH: We had a discussion last week about all these hybrids. I have told people ever since I heard about it, I talked to a high-ranking automobile executive who said, you know, this hybrid stuff is crazy. He said, "If we could make every automobile in America a hybrid today, in five years we would be right back to using the same amount of gasoline and oil that we're using today. It's not going to save anything. So this little column appeared in the Wall Street Journal yesterday by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. It's called "Dear Valued Hybrid Customer --...

MIDI - LAST KISS (oh where oh where can my baby be....remember?) On her way to the Sierra Club...it will turn into quite a flub Miss Arianna really hates SUVs She talks the talk but will she also walk it...I guess we'll see There's her plane touching down, it's at SFO The keynote speaker's set to go They get her bags, where's her ride And on which limo did they decide There at the curb is a big black machine She knows it is not very green But she gets in the SUV Can we all say, HYPOCRISY? Oh...

For decades, Americans have paid little attention to the fuel economy numbers on cars' window stickers -- or to whether their vehicles actually attained those mileage figures. But for hybrid car owners, impressive city and highway mileage numbers are often the primary selling point. When a hybrid's mileage falls short, the owner logically asks why the real-world figures don't match the ones listed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Consumer groups and transportation policy analysts often point to the EPA's test procedure as the cause. Critics say the test cycle, a simulated route of starts and stops to replicate city and...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Federal regulators on Wednesday officially opened an investigation into the red-hot Toyota Prius, responding to complaints alleging the cars' hybrid engine cuts out in traffic. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it received 33 reports of the gas-electric hybrid shutting down without warning typically at speeds between 35 mph and 65 mph. The investigation covers about 75,000 vehicles. Some of the complaints indicate that the vehicle was operated in electric mode for awhile after the gas engine stalled, NHTSA said. In at least half the cases, the car wouldn't restart and had to be towed....

Toyota is looking into complaints in the United States that its popular Prius hybrid car suddenly stalled or shut down, often at high speeds on highways. "We have been alerted to the fact that some owners might have a problem," Toyota spokesman John Hansen told Reuters on Monday. "We are going to go back to our service records to find out what owners have had a problem like this and how many." The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received 13 complaints so far of the gas-electric hybrid vehicles stalling or stopping unexpectedly. Toyota dealers attributed the...