Council gives OK to hybrid in fleet

I had this post all set to go, about the City Council actually increasing an appropriation to buy the parking officer a new vehicle. It's all here, in the Daily News (whose web site seems to have gone bonkers).

Then I remembered I had to run to City Hall, and I thought I might be able to glean some more information about this surprising action (they upped Moak's budget appropriation from $17,500 to $24,500 so the city can buy a hybrid).

"This is an opportunity for us, for the first time, to buy a hybrid vehicle," at-large Councilor Donna Holaday said, noting that Newburyport is earning a reputation as a "green city."

"This City Council is very green," City Clerk Richard Jones told me. "I think they wanted to make a statement with that one vehicle in the fleet."

In my draft post (now discarded), I suggested that the parking officer walk or some other novel idea like that. But Jones tells me that she is responsible for all parking in the city, which means "there are a lot of places that need her attention."

The city does have a part-time person who assists the parking officer during the summer, in the downtown. That person hoofs it.

I still think a smaller-engine car is just as economical as a hybrid.

Or, better yet, buy a used car, says Chuck Squatriglia on the Wired blog network in this piece titled Go Green -- Buy a Used Car. It's Better Than a Hybrid.

Ditching your gas guzzler is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint, but if you really want to do something about global warming, get a used car. You'll be putting less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

As Matt Power notes in this month's issue of Wired, hybrids get great gas mileage but it takes 113 million BTUs of energy to make a Toyota Prius. Because there are about 113,000 BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline, the Prius has consumed the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline before it reaches the showroom. Think of it as a carbon debt -- one you won't pay off until the Prius has turned over 46,000 miles or so.

There's an easy way to avoid that debt -- buy a used car. The debt has already been paid. But not just any used car will do.

It has to be something fuel efficient. Like, say, a 1998 Toyota Tercel that gets 27 mpg city / 35 mpg highway miles. The Prius will have to go 100,000 miles to achieve the same carbon savings as the 10-year-old Tercel. Get behind the wheel of a 1994 Geo Metro XFi, which matches the Prius' 46 mpg, and the Prius would never close the carbon gap, Power writes.

And so it goes.

So although the mayor might be "thinking about it," should the City Council have done a little research before giving Moak the green light to "go green?"