The Sustainable Cities Blog

More Hybrids, Less Hummers

GM's recent cut backs and the contemplation of what exactly to do with the Hummer brand are all happening as Hybrid sales rise. In April of 2008, Hybrids experienced a 15% increase in sales, while the rest of the car market was down 8%. The Prius of course was the leader of the pack, selling 21,757 of the 40,060 hybrid vehicles sold in April 2008.  For those of you interested in the barriers and advancements to better technologies for hybrid vehicles and their batteries, join us this Saturday on Governors Island for "New Materials for Renewable Energy Technologies." (Shameless plug, I know.) Hummer on the other hand sold a measly 2380 in the same month.

While the labor battles at GM are certainly a sad face to this story--each of the 4 plants closing employs about 2500 people--what we are really seeing is a culture war, waged through our automobile choices. And these decisions are essentially our energy impact choices. It was almost surreal to go back and read the words of then Press Secretary for Mr. Bush, Ari Fleischer. This mind you was said in 2001, when the prospect of gas for $3 a gallon was a distant threat.    

REPORTER: Is one of the problems with...the entire energy field, American lifestyles?  Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita, how much it exceeds any other citizen in any other country in the world, does the President believe we need to correct our lifestyles to address the energy problem?

MR. FLEISCHER:  That's a big no.The President believes that it's an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life.  The American way of life is a blessed one...And we have a bounty of resources in this country...the President also believes that the American people's use of energy is a reflection of the strength of our economy, of the way of life that the American people have come to enjoy. 

I completely agree. Our use of energy, rather our waste of energy, is certainly a reflection of our economy: Both are very troubled.