Green for the Road
[Note: As we head into the second Bush administration, I'm going to try to rejigger this blog from primarily left v. right politics (though that will always be good fodder, especially in trying to get some thoughts straight on how to bring progressive/liberal ideas to the larger political marketplace) to focus on a couple of specialized topics. So you'll be seeing more about religion in the U.S. (which feels a little weird, since--as my wife says--I'm a bit of a heathen) as well as the environment, which needs to be addressed now more than ever. (And it's not because I just watched The Day After Tomorrow last night; BTW - good special effects, crappy dialogue and stock characters.)]

Yesterday, the Union of Concerned Scientists named Honda the 2004 Greenest Automaker:

Honda increased its overall lead by building vehicles that produce less than half the smog-forming pollutants of the industry average and 18 percent less heat-trapping emissions. Nissan took over second place by reducing global warming emissions per vehicle more than any other automaker—by about six percent since model year 2001. Toyota's slip into third place is a reflection of Nissan's pollution progress as well a lackadaisical effort from Toyota on smog. Ford maintained a fourth place standing with a Jekyll and Hyde approach to the environment that led to cars that matched Toyota's smog-forming pollution performance for the first time in UCS's analysis and the worst heat-trapping gas performance of all the automakers.

DaimlerChrysler moved into fifth place (one up from last place in the first two rankings) due to GM's poor performance as well as a modest fuel economy improvement from the trucks that make up two-thirds of DaimlerChrysler's sales. GM bottomed out in the rankings, despite many technology announcements and a commitment to lead the Big Three on truck fuel economy. In fact, GM fell from the best of the Big Three to the worst over the past six model years, largely because GM's trucks are more polluting than Ford's and DaimlerChrysler's.