Hybrids cause emissions in somebody else’s back yard

Brief by Allen Best

Environment – November 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine

Four new diesel hybrid-electric buses are being added to the fleet that takes visitors from Aspen to the popular and congested viewing area for the Maroon Bells Peaks. The buses, notes The Aspen Times, were purchased with the aid of a $1.68 million federal grant.

Back in Aspen, a letter-writer takes target at electric-powered mini-Hummers, which are being described as “emission free.”

“Electric vehicles are anything but emission-free,” pointed out James March, the letter-writer. “Electric vehicles simply displace their emissions elsewhere. The electricity has to come from somewhere, and in Aspen’s case that is likely to be from a coal-fired power plant in Craig or down in the Four Corners.”