In honor of Earth Day – and because folks have recently asked about my recent auto trade-in – I’d like to talk about some practical environmentalism.
If I’m to categorize myself, I’m best labeled as “bright green”. I believe in reducing one’s footprint with smarter ideas and better technology. I don’t qualify for “light green”. Sure, we recycle our plastics. We recycle our aluminum cans. We even save up all of our paper and cardboard and take it to the recycling center here in town. Jessica has some nylon bags she uses when she goes to the store, but I don’t use them. (Probably because when I go to the store, it’s straight from the office.) We do most of our cooking at home as opposed to takeout – it saves money, waste packaging and fuel. Because I think these actions are a minimum for responsible living, you generally won’t hear me wax poetic about it. We don’t compost, and we could do better about buying more organic products (they’re more expensive). We use disposable diapers, but then again, water and energy are resources, too. You can either toss diapers, or wash cloth ones using lots of water and energy to heat it (and to run the machine). There are middle-of-the-road diaper solutions that might suffice, but like I said, I’m not as good as I could be. (Hey! Another good reason not to pat myself on the back.) I’m also not a political activist or eco-terrorist.
But being most like the bright greens, I am all about technology that makes the environment happy, and that brings me back to the reason for this entry. A few weeks ago, I traded in our 1999 Chevrolet Suburban for a 2006 Toyota Highlander Hybrid. There were pluses and minuses to the decision, but clearly the pluses won. I no longer have an American car. Both our Highlander Hybrid and our Prius Hybrid were made in Japan. I’m not particularly happy about that. (My Indian motorcycle is all American, though.) The Suburban was paid for, and now I have another car payment – which is why I bought used. (Hey, that’s recycling again!) Comparatively, the Highlander is tiny when placed next to the Suburban. It makes packing for medieval events more tricky, but I don’t carry a pavilion often enough to justify having the larger vehicle anymore. The national average for a gallon of gas is $3.50! That’s insane. It’s not even the summer season yet. The last time I put gas in the Suburban, I spent $100 and didn’t even fill up the tank. I was done. It was costing too much, and I was doing more than my share of keeping this country reliant on foreign oil (even though I owned a Prius, too). To commute back and forth, by myself, pouring gasoline into a V8 was just irresponsible. If I was going to own an SUV, it was going to have to be a green one. (Except it’s white. You know what I mean.)
The first two weeks I owned it, I was out of town on travel and put a little over 1,000 miles on it. It was a good test that I was able to drive long distances comfortably. I got easily double the miles per gallon than the Suburban – and then some. Better yet, while at home I get caught in stop and go traffic, and if I’m going less than about 18 miles per hour, then engine just shuts off. It’s a good feeling I’m familiar with from the Prius. It’s not unlikely that my next job assignment will see me commuting back in the direction of Washington, DC and the heavy traffic is better experienced in a vehicle that will only use the internal combustion engine when necessary. From owning the Prius (and the real-time efficiency monitor), I’ve taught myself to be a hypermiler. The Highlander has a similar display on the dashboard to facilitate this. (Without the display, it’s tougher to learn, but you don’t have to drive a hybrid to hypermile.)
The really cool thing is, that once I get new plates for the Highlander, every vehicle we own will qualify for a single driver in the HOV lanes I use. Sadly, the “clean special fuel” plates in Virginia can only fit six letters, so my current personalized plates will have to be retired. I’ll live. 
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