Draft SUV Drivers First

I used to drive an SUV around town. It mostly made sense, because we had two cars, for two adults, and one of them needed to seat our family of six, especially for long trips to the snow. It didn't seem wise to buy a third car just to drive around town. But the more I drove around in that SUV, most of the time alone, knowing that we're in Iraq because of oil, the sicker I started to feel.

So, the first big step on my path to a greener life was to buy a Prius. I'm lucky, and I didn't have to sell the SUV to afford the Prius, so we can still use the SUV when we really need it. If I weren't so lucky I would replace the SUV and rent or borrow one when needed, which turns out to be only a handful of times a year.

Recently a friend gave me a hard time and asserted that my family's three cars pollute more than her one car. We have the SUV, a Prius, and a Honda Civic that runs on compressed natural gas. She has a Volvo station wagon. We drive more than she does. We pollute less.

So if you're thinking of buying a new car anyway, shop green. You can find a green rating of cars at Yahoo Auto (this list was compiled by the folks at Environmental Defense, so you can rely on the information here).