SUVs race the Prius to Oscar green carpet

[DainBramaged]

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Oscars2008/idUSN2261962420080223

General Motors Corp may drive Toyota Motor Corp's environmentally friendly sedan off the green carpet this year, giving stars rides to the Oscars -- in sports utility vehicles.

Driving a Prius hybrid has become the standard way for Hollywood stars to flaunt their environmental credentials. But GM says more than 75 will get to the Academy Awards this weekend in SUVs that run on ethanol, have hybrid engines, or rely on zero-emission fuel cells.

"It has been such a Toyota top-sided story until now," said GM spokeswoman Christi Conti, declining to say exactly who would be behind the wheel of hybrid GMC Yukons that get 22 miles per gallon on the highway.

"Someone like Cameron Diaz is on the presenter list. I don't know what she is going to arrive in. It was offered to all the presenters and all the performers," she added.

"There's never at any awards show been a fleet of fuel cell vehicles," she said.

More at link.

[Ian David]

1. Arnold Scwartzenager will arrive in a flaming Hummer powered by burning live baby harp seals. n/t

[LeftyMom]

2. He promises he'll convert it to hydrogen soon though.

;)

[ingac70]

3. The manufacture of batteries for hybrids are horrible for the environment.

http://www.helium.com/tm/304583/idling-bumper-bumper-gridlock

[DainBramaged]

4. Yup, but that's ok, hybrid owners 'doin their part savin gas

and overpaying for theirs cars.:sarcasm:

The area in Ontario where the initial smelting for the Toyota Prius batteries occurs has become barren and scarred and lifeless in the less than two decades that the smelting plant has been situated there. The rain now falls acid, plantlife has long since withered, and no wildlife exists for miles around.

[ingac70]

5. that is so horrid...

I'd rather try out diesel, bio diesel, or ethanol, but thinking about the nasty shit in those batteries scares the hell out of me.

When cars get old some folks just let them rot in the yard or in junk yards. These batteries need proper disposal, and I fear if they start selling a bunch of them we are going to end up with large swaths of land contaminated through improper disposal of these things in the future.

I am a former UAW member.. took a buyout from Ford last year. Local 737.

[DainBramaged]

6. People don't recycle alkaline batteries either

and they will destroy the ground water over the next two generations, MILLIONS of them thrown in the garbage every year.


Region 8 huh? Gary Casteel the director. Nashville glass plant? Hope you got out with your health!



:toast: :hi:

[ingac70]

7. Yup...

I was only there 9 and a half years. But my Dad and Grandaddy retired from there. Grandaddy has since passed, but Dad is in good health. I was in production, Dad was in maintenance, and my grandfather was in maintenance, then in supervision before he retired.

Lots of folks get cancer or have thyroid issues in that plant.

[DainBramaged]

8. God bless

tough place to work, but you're out and healthy. Hope you are working. Ford has taken a huge hit the past couple of years. They need to recover for the sake of the economy.

[ingac70]

9. Actually...

I'm not working right now, but was fortunate enough to have a husband that earned more than enough for me to quit.

I worry about the others, but am so glad to be out myself. Hard times for Ford aside, even when Ford was making money we had to listen to how much we sucked and how they didn't want us. Mental abuse!

Not to mention the having to work with (and the near misses with) ancient equipment that is falling apart.

Ford won't recover until they get some management with two brain cells to rub together.

[Buzz Clik]

10. I really, really would like to see a link that supports this claim.

"The area in Ontario where the initial smelting for the Toyota Prius batteries occurs has become barren and scarred and lifeless in the less than two decades that the smelting plant has been situated there. The rain now falls acid, plantlife has long since withered, and no wildlife exists for miles around."

You are equating the manufacture of Prius batteries with the total destruction of an ecosystem. I call bullshit.

Please demonstrate that this area was pristine prior to the advent of hybrids and that the manufacture of Prius batteries has created this problem as you so strongly indicate.