John Carlson seems to have missed the BTU boat when he cites Wired’s “Inconvenient Truths” in “WIRED magazine: going green perhaps not all it’s cracked up to be.” When a used vehicle is traded for a new one, the carbon debt already been amassed. Happened as soon as the new Prius or Hummer or whatever got built.

People are turning to old Tercels and Geo Metros because they cannot afford their current used vehicle, cannot afford a new Prius, there aren’t many if any used Priuses around, but they can afford the used Tercel or Geo.

Trading my eight-year-old Saturn for a vehicle that gets comparable mileage, like a 10-year-old Tercel, turns logic on it’s head. It’s only worth it for me to trade up to something significantly better like a Prius. Or I can hold out for something that makes a huge leap in fuel efficiency like a 100+ MPH PHEV Prius or Chevy Volt – a little over two years away.

When one person trades their used Prius for a new Prius, the used Prius gets bought by someone else who trades in their used car. That used car gets bought by someone else who takes their old beater off the road. The introduction of newer, better, more fuel efficient cars has a “trickle down” effect in the economy whereby older, more polluting vehicles get retired from service and better, more fuel efficient vehicles go into service.

It’s pathetic and sad for someone who supposedly understands economics to so blatantly and foolishly echo this new anti Prius attack. This makes me question why I voted for John for governor eight years ago.

Ken Grubb

Puyallup