SierraScape June - July 2004
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by Jill Miller

The 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid has "evolved" to get 50-60 mpg.	photo courtesy of Darden Rice

Building on the success of our previous hybrid car events, on Memorial Day the Sierra Club kicks off an ambitious "Route 66 Hybrid Evolution Tour" to boost support for clean energy solutions.

Sierra Club organizers will drive a 2004 Toyota Prius along the historic route from Chicago to Los Angeles, covering eight states in all. Driving a car that gets better than 50 miles per gallon, we'll make promotional stops in more than 20 cities and towns to show how we can evolve towards energy efficiency and clean sources of power. You can even track the progress of the tour on our new clean energy website, IWillEvolve.org.

Whether it's wind farms in Oklahoma instead of new coal-burning power plants, or cars that get better gas mileage and produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions, it's clear we can do better to protect our environment.

We'll also show how the Bush administration is siding with big polluters instead of protecting the environment and people's health. The Bush administration's energy policy would give billions of dollars in taxpayer handouts to the polluting coal, oil, gas and nuclear industries, while at the same time, the administration's attempts to weaken the Clean Air Act leaves our communities at risk.

In St. Louis, for example, our poor air quality is further threatened by new coal-burning power plants (see Peabody article, page 2). St. Louis already ranks 3rd worst in the nation for asthma, and has received failing grades from the American Lung Association for high ground-level ozone. On April 15, EPA declared eight St. Louis metro area counties to be in non-attainment for more stringent 8-hour ozone standards. New coal-burning facilities will only worsen the problem.

Like the 1946 Bobby Troup song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" says, on Route you "go through St. Louie, Joplin, Missouri..." all the way to L.A. After its Chicago kickoff and stops in Bloomington-Normal and Springfield, IL, the Hybrid Evolution Tour will arrive in St. Louis on Friday, June 4th. At each stop we'll have speakers, information, and hybrid cars to check out. Please come join us for these exciting events!

Get involved--you can help make the Route 66 Hybrid Evolution Tour a grand success!

(To learn about our exciting Hybrid Car Day on April 3rd in University City, please visit our website at missouri.sierraclub.org/emg.)