Are You Driving Green or Mean?

Recently the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy released their list of the Greenest and Meanest Vehicles of 2007. The ACEEE is a Washington, D.C.-based independent, non-profit research group dedicated to advancing energy efficiency as a means of protecting the environment and strengthening the economy. They seek to encourage manufacturers to produce high-efficiency, low-pollution vehicles and also to motivate consumers to purchase them. A cornerstone of this effort is ACEEE's Green Book: The Environmental Guide to Cars and Trucks and its website: http://www.greenercars.com/.

Topping the Green List was the Honda Civic GX with a green score of 57. The scores were calculated using engine specifications, emmision standards, and city/highway miles per gallon.

The Honda Civic GX runs on natural gas and is being billed as the cleanest running car on Earth. There are even devices available for refueling at home in your garage since there are not natural gas filling stations on every corner.

Toyota Prius came in second with a green score of 55. It gets more miles to the gallon than a Honda Civic but lost on emissions. Who could compete with a zero emissions model like the GX, anyway?

The rest of the Green List goes like this:

HONDA CIVIC HYBRID, rating of 53
NISSAN ALTIMA HYBRID, rating of 48
TOYOTA YARIS, rating of 47
TOYOTA COROLLA, rating of 46
TOYOTA CAMRY HYBRID, rating of 46
HONDA FIT, rating of 45
KIA RIO / RIO 5, rating of 45
HYUNDAI ACCENT, rating of 45
HYUNDAI ELANTRA, rating of 45
HONDA CIVIC, rating of 44.

The ACEEE also compiled a list they called the Meanest Vehicles of 2007. That lists the biggest offenders to the enviroment. So if you are driving a Volkswagen Touareg or a Mercedes-Benz GL320 CDI you might want to think about trading it in for one of the great cars on the greenest list. They have the dubious honor of ranking the lowest on the Green List.

I can personally recommend the Prius. I've driven one for a little over a year and find it comfortable, reliable, and surpisingly powerful. You might like it, too. We can all do the environment a favor and send a message to the auto industry by buying fuel-efficient, low-emissions cars and turning our backs on the bigger-than-a-mountain, gas guzzling SUV's. Lobbying our government to set stricter standards is also a positive step toward a cleaner Earth.