The Myth that the Prius Outdoes Hummer In Environmental Damage

Latest example of the myth: College Newspaper Opinion Piece

Notable qualities: It combines 3 Prius smears (CNW Marketing's Dust-to-Dust study, the Mail on Sunday "Arid Wilderness" or "Sudbury" Story, and revised EPA mileage misrepresentations)

General qualities: misinformation/stealthmarketing/environmental swift-boating

Appearances: Rush Limbaugh, message boards everywhere, and now rewritten as Commentary/Letters to the editor for: The Philadelphia Inquirer (April 4, 2007), Vail Daily.

Why this blog?
This blog entry is in specific response to an opinion piece by Chris Demarro titled "Prius Outdoes Hummer in Enivronmental Damage" that is currently infecting message boards, radio, and now genuine newspapers. That an opinion piece (i.e., no fact-checking) for a college newspaper with a record of irresponible/reckless publishing (see The CCSU Recorder's February 2007 opinion column "Rape only hurts if you fight it") is now getting republished in regurgitated form in regular newspapers only speaks to the pathetic state of American Journalism, both in Universities like CCSU and at large. Chris Demorro is the sort of writer that really needs an editor to check his facts or perhaps tell him what one is.

Key points that are wrong in Demarro's Article:
New EPA Mileage
Regarding new EPA mileage estimates, Demorro claims the Chevy Aveo's mileage puts it within "spitting distance" of the Prius. The new EPA combined mileage put the Chevy Aveo at 26 mpg, the Toyota Prius at 46 mpg. Bizzarly, Demorro regards the Prius's additional 20 miles per gallon as "spitting distance" to a car that only gets 26 mpg to start with.

CNW's Dust-to-Dust Study
The "Dust-to-dust" study is from a marketing firm (CNW marketing), not a science journal. Basically, the study arrives at an artificially high cost for the Prius by assigning it an arbitrary lifespan of 100k miles, and a Hummer 300k miles. There's Prius being used as cabs that have 200k on them now. And, insofar as a car lasting, what car do should one expect to repair less? A Toyota Prius or a GM Hummer? You can check Consumer Reports for the answer to that one. The CNW study makes other faulty assumptions as well, and a good analysis of the flaws in dust-to-dust is available from TrueDelta and autoblogreen.

Toyota Prius batteries created a toxic wasteland in Sudbury, Canada
The Sudbury info is seriously outdated, and Demorro's comment about moon buggies (like, when did Nasa test moon buggies — early 1970’s) ought to have given him a clue. Sudbury was polluted by a century of mining (1870 on). In fact, some of Sudbury’s nickel went into making the Statue of Liberty. Currently, the mine is owned by INCO (not Toyota), and produces 100,000 tons of nickel a year, of which Toyota buys 1% (1000 tons). Blaming Toyota for the pollution at Sudbury is ludicrous. Nickel, by the way, is primarily used to make stainless steel. The Mail on Sunday newspaper, which ran the story that Demorro's mining allegations are a thin re-write of (visible here), used a stock photo you can buy online taken in 1994 to illustrate the pollution (visible here). There were, of course, no Prius in existence or being manufactured in 1994.

Furthermore, Sudbury is no longer this polluted, as INCO and the city have planted over 8 million trees there since 1979. A really good history online of the Sudbury devastation/reforestation comes from GM Canada -- that's GM, maker of the Hummer, ahem, writing about how Sudbury was polluted and how it has come back. Really, one should blame Chicago more than Toyota, as Sudbury's trees were all cut down in 1871 to help rebuild Chicago after the fire. GM provides telling photos of some of the reclamation from 1979 to present.

If you would like to see video of the area, Canadian news recently broadcast a show on Sudbury's regreening efforts.

More facts wrong in Demorro's follow-up:
The author of this article, Demorro, is so fact-challenged that in his follow-up piece wherein he admits the flaws in the dust to dust study, he continues his Prius-bashing by recommending people buy a Tesla Roadster for $30,000. The Tesla Roadster actually costs $92,000. Demorro can't even get the list price of a car right; I seriously wouldn't trust his opinion on hybrids.

The real picture:
Most of a car's environmental footprint comes from its daily operation, and those stats put things back perspective (from fueleconomy.gov):

Hummer H3
Annual Fuel Cost $2,337
20.1 Barrels per year
Greenhouse Gas Rating: 11.1 tons/year
Air pollution score: 6/10

Prius
Annual Fuel cost $713
6.2 Barrels per year
Greenhouse Gas Rating: 3.4 tons/year
Air pollution score: 8/10

A brief history of the Myth:
1. CNW puts out its Dust-to-Dust study, with the intial Hummer better than Prius claim.
2. The Mail on Sunday publishes a piece of alleging the Prius is responsible for pollution at Sudbury.
3. Chris Demorro writes an opinion piece for the CCSU Recorder adding EPA mileage misrepresentations (i.e., comparisions using revised Prius mileage and unrevised Aveo mileage), to the Sudbury and Dust-to-Dust allegations.
4. Demorro's piece is reposted all over the web; Rush Limbaugh reads it on-air.
5. James L. Martin rewrites Demorro, gets published as commentary in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
6. CNW posts the Philadelphia Inquirer column on its website.

credit for rebutal info: Thanks to Dave Rado, Priuschat members, Greenhybrid members, Truedelta