Every Sunday I watch This Week with George Stephanopoulos, which features a round-table discussion to talk about the week's news. George's literal right-hand man on the round-table is George Will, a conservative columnist for Newsweek. I have no problem with George Will. He spoke at my brother's college graduation and I enjoyed listening to him (I stayed awake through it, at least). When he is talking about issues he has a lot of knowledge about, he presents good arguments and admits when his "side of the aisle" is wrong. But hybrid cars, and the Prius in particular, is one area where George Will has no knowledge. In the past he has argued the tired theory that Hummers are more environmentally friendly, and this past Sunday, during a conversation regarding the auto industry, Will claimed that the Prius is only successful because Toyota doesn't make any profit off them.
"[The Prius is] affordable because Toyota sells it at a loss, and it can afford to sell it at a loss because it is selling twice as many gas-guzzling pickup trucks of the sort our president detests. So as an auto executive, he's off to a rocky start."
For those of you who didn't see it, PriusChat member marduk recently posted an article stating that Toyota and Honda make $3,100 on the sale of each hybrid they sell. Apparently Mr. Will does not read PriusChat, Green Car Congress, or any of the more than 2 dozen other publications who published that news last week.
Alex Pastermack put together a great article over at TreeHugger refuting George Will's idiotic statement. I'll let him take over from here.
George Will Disses the Prius, Obama and the Facts
Photo from Alex Pastermack as well.
