Are Hybrids All Hype?Brendan I. Koerner takes readers' questions about buying a new fuel-efficient car vs. a used gas-guzzler.

(Continued from page 4)

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Washington: Yesterday another daily paper praised the destruction of an old building downtown and the construction of a new, "greener" one. The author did not mention anything about a green roof. My question is, is destruction-construction really greener than retrofitting an existing building? Thanks!

Brendan Koerner: I've looked into green roofs, and I'm always amazed by how much energy savings they provide. That said, the answer to your question will depend a lot on the specifics of the older building's power plant. Again, so many variables to consider...

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Albuquerque, N.M.: Re: Prius reliability, the best data is from the large fleet of Prius taxis in Vancouver. Read about them starting from the executive summary: 66 percent less cost in maintenaince and repairs compared to no-Prius fleet; 250,000 miles no problem; no hybrid powertrain related repairs to date (amazing).

Brendan Koerner: Yeah, everything I've seen about the Prius adds credence to the viewpoint that it's a very reliable car. But I still get e-mails everyday from readers who've heard that Priuses are little devil machines that electrocute mechanics, require new batteries every few thousand miles, and use more energy than Hummers. So many urban legends surrounding the car—again, I'm baffled why it attracts so much ire.

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Rockville, Md.:"But I'm curious about how long it takes for light-rail projects, in particular, to pay off environmentally..." The key parts of a transit system are the downtown connectors and stops. Those are the expensive parts. The suburbs can be above ground if needed. If you have that, you can expand to meet greatly enhanced ridership. So the most expensive part in Los Angeles is now in the ground. Now if Washington only had gone for four tracks...

Brendan Koerner: Good points. Different cities have developed differently, and so some will be more amenable to light-rail solutions than others. Geography, of course, plays a role, too. L.A. was a real challenge given its hilliness—I know the red line, for example, cuts right through the Hollywood Hills. Anytime you start digging into the ground, costs skyrocket.

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Falls Church, Va.: I am keeping my old gas guzzler (a Benz with a five-liter V8 engine). Although it gets about 28 mpg on the highway going 80 mph, it only gets about 13-14 mpg commuting to the city because the car is so heavy to stop and start. My solution: I bike to work downtown from Falls Church, and save the gas guzzler for comfortable road trips. Buying a Prius probably would be less green than my solution, because more energy would be needed to manufacture the additional car than would be saved by my biking to work and using the gas guzzler for road trips.

Brendan Koerner: Interesting solution—thanks for sharing. Watch out for those highway speed traps when you're cranking the Benz at 80, though.

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If I were an inventor: I'd make a car that ran on something we all produce ... a byproduct of metabolic cellular respiraton. It is know simply as No. 1.

Brendan Koerner: If you did that, I believe the Nobel Prize would await. And Mountain Dew's sales would skyrocket.

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Brendan Koerner: Hey, I gotta jet—apologies to those whose questions I couldn't get to. Thanks a million to everyone, and I hope you'll check out both "The Green Lantern" on Slate and my new book, "Now the Hell Will Start."

'Til next time, y'all. Cheers.

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