"Wow, I am a hippie"
All of a sudden "miles per gallon" has become sexy. At least according to the commercials….
With gas prices doing what they’re doing we’ve suddenly been reminded that gas isn’t free and conserving it is good. It’s good for the wallet and it isn’t bad for the environment either….
I’ve been trying to be a good, environmentally and socially conscious Camry driver -- keeping my ‘99, 4-cylinder, automatic transmission Sedan in good working order, keeping my tires appropriately aired and even burning ethanol-mixed gas when possible.
Because I’d rather burn American, renewable corn booze.
Now I’ve gotten my Federal tax refund back I’m thinking about a "TerraPass," terrapass.com. Basically, you buy off the equivalent of your car’s yearly pollution by funding clean energy projects, trying to make your auto effectively a zero-emissions vehicle.
Just how much of a tree-hugging hippie am I and how many guns will I have to shoot down at the range to compensate? I actually don’t consider the two stereotypical extremes incompatible, and really quite complementary, but that’s another column.
That I’ve already written.
I think I found out about the program on CNN.com a while back. According to their website, they’ve got a third party auditing and keeping tabs on them, insuring they’re legit, and come quite well recommended.
So my $49.95 ($79.95 on my new Lamborghini, or not….) would go to fund things like buying pollution out of the environment on the "Chicago Climate Exchange…. a voluntary cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide pollution," a system that gives companies a financial incentive not to pollute, and which makes sense in my head if not in this column. TerraPass programs also further wind energy and derive electricity by burning cow manure.
Wow, I am a hippie.
But am I fifty bucks worth of hippie? Are those environmental programs the ones I most want to support? Have I done all my research? I mean, is my little portrait of Ulysses S. Grant doing more for the world traded for a TerraPass, or spent bowling?
I just can’t decide. I just can’t make up my mind. I need your help.
Yep, that’s YOU.
Yes, my dear reader, you’re getting ready to do that American thing (No, not eating junk food, watching crummy TV shows and driving overweight cars). Voting.
Just go to The Star’s new, shiny website, shelbystar.com, to vote in our daily poll. I look forward to what folks think I oughta do and being able to blame my personal actions on others.
In the meantime I’ll enjoy my relatively efficient, increasingly sexy, Granny-mobile.
Maybe if I’m lucky then svelte, skilled and bespectacled (that "Woody Allen" flair) will come into vogue, too.
With gas prices doing what they’re doing we’ve suddenly been reminded that gas isn’t free and conserving it is good. It’s good for the wallet and it isn’t bad for the environment either….
I’ve been trying to be a good, environmentally and socially conscious Camry driver -- keeping my ‘99, 4-cylinder, automatic transmission Sedan in good working order, keeping my tires appropriately aired and even burning ethanol-mixed gas when possible.
Because I’d rather burn American, renewable corn booze.
Now I’ve gotten my Federal tax refund back I’m thinking about a "TerraPass," terrapass.com. Basically, you buy off the equivalent of your car’s yearly pollution by funding clean energy projects, trying to make your auto effectively a zero-emissions vehicle.
Just how much of a tree-hugging hippie am I and how many guns will I have to shoot down at the range to compensate? I actually don’t consider the two stereotypical extremes incompatible, and really quite complementary, but that’s another column.
That I’ve already written.
I think I found out about the program on CNN.com a while back. According to their website, they’ve got a third party auditing and keeping tabs on them, insuring they’re legit, and come quite well recommended.
So my $49.95 ($79.95 on my new Lamborghini, or not….) would go to fund things like buying pollution out of the environment on the "Chicago Climate Exchange…. a voluntary cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide pollution," a system that gives companies a financial incentive not to pollute, and which makes sense in my head if not in this column. TerraPass programs also further wind energy and derive electricity by burning cow manure.
Wow, I am a hippie.
But am I fifty bucks worth of hippie? Are those environmental programs the ones I most want to support? Have I done all my research? I mean, is my little portrait of Ulysses S. Grant doing more for the world traded for a TerraPass, or spent bowling?
I just can’t decide. I just can’t make up my mind. I need your help.
Yep, that’s YOU.
Yes, my dear reader, you’re getting ready to do that American thing (No, not eating junk food, watching crummy TV shows and driving overweight cars). Voting.
Just go to The Star’s new, shiny website, shelbystar.com, to vote in our daily poll. I look forward to what folks think I oughta do and being able to blame my personal actions on others.
In the meantime I’ll enjoy my relatively efficient, increasingly sexy, Granny-mobile.
Maybe if I’m lucky then svelte, skilled and bespectacled (that "Woody Allen" flair) will come into vogue, too.
posted by John Derrick | 4:07 PM
2 Comments:
John - before you plunk down your hard earned money - be a smart consumer and take a gander at CarbonFund.org also. They are a non-profit doing pretty much the same thing.
Ohhh, so much carbon -- and I want to eat it all myself....
Thanks, I'll check out that link!
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