…of Nikitas3.com

The Environmental Protection Agency soon will issue revised 2008 miles-per-gallon ratings for hybrid cars that are expected to cut mileage estimates for some models by 10-20%. Under the new system, the Toyota Prius, the best-known and fastest-selling hybrid gas-electric car in America, falls from 60 mpg to only 48.

The revised figures are a result of new testing methods that include real-world conditions that drivers are likely to encounter in everyday driving like higher speeds, faster acceleration, temperature variability and the use of air conditioning.

And while hybrid car advocates are praising the new system for offering consumers a more accurate picture of what they can expect, the new figures contradict what they and the American media have been reporting about hybrid cars for years. From NBC’s Today show to CNN, media figures have been breathlessly praising hybrids without discussing their downside. And there are many.

Hybrid owners themselves have actually led the charge against the high-mileage claims, noting that their gas mileage hasn’t even approached the estimates. But disapppointed owners have nobody to blame for the confusion but their own gulllibility, nourished by the enviro movement and our overstuffed Environmental Portection Agency.

According John DiPietro, road-test editor of the automotive website Edmunds.com, drivers are not at all likely to see EPA mileage in the real world, and should expect 75% to 87% of EPA estimates, while the independent product-testing organization Consumer Reports notes that hybrid cars get less than 60% of EPA estimates on city streets.

The reason for the dichotomy is simple, but simply bizarre: EPA testing is a lab simulation, while independent testers actually drive the cars around to gauge gas mileage.

EPA says that “tests measure the waste substances emitted from consuming the fuel, not the actual fuel consumed. From the measurement of emissions, EPA can estimate the miles per gallon achieved by the vehicle on average.”

Uh… could you repeat that?

This is just more nonsense from the government. Why can’t they test cars like any sensible person would?

Answer: Because they are the government, that’s why, the same government that couldn’t even deliver truckloads of ice from Point A to Point B after Hurrican Katrina.

Meanwhile, the cost-effectiveness of hybrid cars is failing another basic test. Edmunds.com has calculated that a Honda Accord hybrid costs almost $4,000 more than a non-hybrid, and will not pay for its additional cost for five years or more. And while there are tax incentives for hybrid cars, this is unfair in light of the fact that all Americans need tax relief, not just those purchasing a certain type of auto. The new tax laws can be confusing as well.

What we are witnessing is more and more pressure from green/leftists in their rush to manipulate Americans into behaviors that enviros and the intellectual classes favor most.

But what driving experts in fact are finding is much less sexy than a Hollywood Hunk driving a Prius, that certain driving techniques alone will give you increased fuel mileage without the added expense of a hybrid, like accelerating slower and braking more gently. Diesel cars also get better gas mileage, while just the purchase of a smaller car can provide a buyer with much better value over the long run. And because of all the hype, hybrids typically are selling at full sticker price whereas other cars are more open to negotiation. Like expensive organic carrots, expect to pay much more to comfort yourself with being ‘green’.

Another area to consider in this vein is the so-called “bio-fuels” movement which today is suffering from the same syndrome as hybrid cars – that the PR far outruns the reality.

Here in the United States, the switch-over to ethanol produced from Midwestern corn already has pushed up the price of beef and chicken for consumers as corn is diverted from livestock feed to fuel production. Even the price of corn for export to poor nations has risen as a result of enviro pressure to develop bio-fuels. In Malaysia, “most (biofuel) plants which are now completing construction are not being commissioned as it is just not viable,” said M.R. Chandran, an independent industry analyst and former head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association.

Meanwhile, Germany’s biodiesel expansion has been cut back and many plants are operating far below capacity. “If we will not have any change in our regulation in Germany it is very clear that within the next two years more or less 50 percent of the capacity will vanish,” said Karl Giersberg, CFO for EOP Biodiesel.

In the United States, like everywhere else, only taxpayer subsidies have driven the biofuels sector, while the industry has been hit by naturally rising costs for crucial feedstocks, with prices approaching records.

What this all means is that ‘green pressure’ on the economy is unsustainable because the words “environmental” and “economics” are oxymoronic. With many centuries of coal, oil, uranium, tar sands and oil shale all over the earth and under the seas, we must get back to a sustainable energy policy based on fuels that work and cars that run — without running consumers into the ground.

Enough of the Hybrid Hype. It’s time to get real on energy.