philly

I cannot believe the irresponsibility of Chris Satullo (215-854-5943), Editorial Page editor, and the rest of the editors at The Inquirer in theiir printing of this bullshit "commentary" – more like a hack job. Read that and then read this, the hack job article from a college newspaper. The "commentary" discusses the "Hidden cost of driving a Prius" when compared to that of a Hummer and it is written by the president of some old folks lobbying group from Arlington, VA. What the fuck is some old folks lobbying group doing writing editorials for the Philadelphia Inquirer? Sound like a nationwide letter writing campaign to anyone else on behalf of big oil? The "study" has already been floating around for a little while and has been trashed on /., engadget, True Delta, The Watt, Treehugger, grist…

Taking a look at previous op-eds submitted by the old folks group here, you can clearly see their anti-environmental stance and blind follow-the-leader mentality. Blech. The "commentary" is just fucking bogus.

Martin spends 295 of his 772 words describing the scene of a landscape in Subdury, Ontario where Toyota currently buys 1000 tons of nickel a year for battery manufacturing

On the perimeter of the area, skeletons of trees and bushes stand like ghostly sentinels guarding a sprawling wasteland. Astronauts in training for NASA actually have practiced driving moon buggies on the suburban Sudbury tract because it's considered a duplicate of the Moon's landscape.

Oh but wait, when was NASA practicing driving MOON BUGGIES? Back in the 70s that's when. Toyota's purchasing of 1000 tons of nickel in 2007 has nothing to do with what was already a wasteland in 1970. But Martin bases his argument (38% of it) on it.

Maybe the editors of the editorial page should amend their guidelines page to include "somewhat linked to some fact" and not just shit pulled out of some lobbyist's ass.

The "study" estimated the overall cost, dust to dust (from manufacture to usage to junking), of a Prius at $3.25/mile and a Hummer at $1.95/mile. Those numbers are based on the alleged lifetime of a Prius at 100k and a Hummer at 300k. [bullshit]. Priuses go the long haul and along the way, have consistently been rated as a generally problem-free vehicle cutting down costs in the long run in other ways aside from just at the pump. The Hummer is a clunker of a truck which tends to be, from my experience on the road, driven by idiots who feel safer in a big box taking up 1.5 lanes and 2 parking spots at will but are endangering other people on the road via their false sense of security.

Double the milage for the Prius (it's been documented already) and you have a $1.67/mile cost, that's already less than the Hummer and with 100k fewer miles driven. Make it an even comparison at 300k, or lower the Hummer's number to 200k and the picture looks a little different, don't it?

In the end, this "study" was conducted by a marketing company. It was not peer-reviewed and their data is not being shared with the public – two signs of some fuzzy, secretive methodology, eh?

You've already given Smerconish a further amplified voice, did you really need to publish this bullshit too? Unless they're going the way of The Daily Show and publishing the actual words of crazies and pronouncing them as pure, sad comedy. But they're not doing that, are they? Chris?

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