Green Cars, Green Virginia or Maybe Not

Recently the Obama administration proposed new rules aimed to increase fuel efficiency standards of cars and light trucks. That's a good thing, getting more out of gallon of gas and sending less carbon emissions into the atmosphere and contributing less to global warming. 

In Northern Virginia, where I live, I think that the message to drive more fuel efficient cars is breaking through. Maybe not.

My friend who writes the girlmeetshome blog drives a hybrid Honda Civic. It's a nice car that's not half as stylish as she is or her blog, but if she'll excuse me for outing her on the Internet -- she got it primarily to ride in the HOV lanes. And one long look at the cars riding in the HOV lanes of 66 every morning and evening will reveal that a lot of people are driving hybrids these days.

I wasn't able to find recent statistics, but according to some dinosaur data from the Greencar Congress, Virginia ranked second only behind California in hybrid vehicle registrations.  While Virginia may have fallen from the silver medal spot these past few years, I think that it's a good bet that the state still ranks in the top ten.

So why isn't that a good thing? Well the whole purpose of HOV lanes is to reduce emissions and while a hybrid certainly does that, the "O" in HOV stands for occupancy. The real goal is to reduce emissions by getting cars off of the road. Unless I missed the brochure, hybrids still do burn some gasoline and emit some carbon.

The fact is a fair amount of the hybrid drivers on our roads primarily drive a hybrid so they can speed past me in my conventional Civic. Some mornings on the Dulles Toll Road I move so slowly that I'd get to Tyson's corner faster if I walked. Meanwhile, single riders in Hybrids are silently (tire noise notwithstanding) streaming down the left hand HOV lane, getting 40+ miles per gallon.

Which brings me back to the President's fuel efficiency standards. His goal of average fleet MPG of 35.5 miles is a good one, but the President really needs to be a magician because the better trick is to get people out of their cars altogether, especially for routine tasks like getting to work.

When gas prices surged above $4 per gallon last summer, it was kamikaze time at the park and ride that I use. Folks couldn't rush to the parking lot fast enough and board the bus into downtown DC. With gas prices comfortably below $2.50 (although on the increase in recent weeks -- can someone say summer driving season?), spaces don't fill up so fast over at Dulles North.

Virginians are green. It shows in the cars we drive and in our visits to the parks we love. But the truth is our driving habits need to improve if we're going to make any real dent in climate change due to carbon emissions.  The Virginia Department of Forestry has a blog that looks at the effect of climate change on the state's forests. Admitting that the data is a bit sketchy and a lot of things can happen, the writers note that "Despite all this uncertainty, climate change on the level predicted would likely have significant impact of our forests, even if there is a large degree of uncertainty as to just what these impacts will be."

 And the photo at the beginning of this article? That's a picture of a pine tree forest being eaten to death by pine beetles. You see, the beetles are enjoying better breeding weather with higher temperatures out there in the Rocky Mountain region. Virginia has pine trees and if we don't seriously tackle the global warming trends from carbon emissions, maybe the beetles will be here soon.