Cruise control

Derek Thompson blogs about the cash for clunkers program on The Atlantic's Business page. But what got my attention was this comment by "Jimminy" rationalizing not purchasing a hybrid:

FURTHER, they promote an air of complacency, especially among the well to do who buy them, thinking, "There, I've done my part. Environmental crisis over."

Which has to be the farthest from the truth. Maybe that's what the future holds as more and more people buy hybrids, but I doubt it.

The reality is this: early hybrid adopters are strong environmentalists who were already bringing eco-consciousness into all aspects of their lives. Those who don't really care about the environment, or who claim to care but don't want to feel guilty about it, like to kvetch and moan about hybrid drivers, how they hate their holier-than-thou, smug, moralistic attitude, even though the hybrid driving environmentalists are just behaving like concerned citizens, and rarely with any preaching. Sure, ask them about their hybrid, and they'll talk for hours, telling you how far they can go on a tankful, how they didn't realize gas was so expensive this week 'cause they haven't bought any yet this month. So they're smug.

And those who make the decision to buy hybrids but who are not already avid environmentalist? Well, they tend to become avid environmentalists. Or at least avid gas savers.

They spend ridiculous mental energy focused on saving automobile energy. They work on seeing how far they can coast to stop lights without using any gas. They drive without air conditioning, to eek out a few more miles per gallon. In the summer. In Florida. What's a sweaty back if you can break last month's best mileage record? They push the limits to see how infrequently they can go to the gas station, and so they generally drive less, not more. For example, non-environmentalist James Woolsey, former CIA director, drives a converted plug-in Prius as part of his quest to reduce reliance on foreign oil (bankrolling terrorists is his concern) - and obsessively tracks his use of gasoline and his electric bill for charging the car up, getting frustrated when his car doesn't quite get the hoped-for mileage. Not how most people define complacent, is it?

To minimize fuel use even more, hybrid owners, more often than others, ride bikes to the grocery store. To get their organic, locally grown food that used less fuel to grow and arrive at the market.

And they carry that near obsessive behavior into the home. Inside, they run the home air conditioning less. Outside, they mow their lawn with a push reel mower (I love my Brill), instead of using gasoline powered mowers which are inefficient and lack catalytic converters, and are responsible for five percent (no joke) of all U.S. pollution, according to the EPA. In fact, since gas mowers cause up to four times more pollution than some of the oldest cars on the road, an electric mower for gas mower clunkers program would be wildly more beneficial for the environment than C4C!

And while the hybrid owners are checking out their people-powered lawn mowers, they'll sometimes end up with a composter, and, while visiting the local green fair, get a trial membership with their local organic food co-op.

Sorry, hybrid owners are not complacent, they're hyper-conscious. Smug and morally superior? That's a personal thing - smug folks are smug folks; yet my experience is that hybrid drivers - and environmentally concerned people in general (not to be confused with activists, who are always, by nature and definition, more, um, vocal) - are modest, internally-focused and thoughtful. They're people trying to do the right thing.

It's really the defensiveness and smugness of those who complain about them that should raise eyebrows. And anyway, who's more deserving?

But it's easier to hide behind an excuse than to do the right thing, right?