American Council for an Energy - Efficient Economy Releases Green Rating for All Cars

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has just released its database telling the green rating of every car produced within 2000 to 2007. Each car is rated by how much pollution is caused by that car, including tailpipe exhaust, and pollution created during production processes. MSNBC.com praises the Green Book, with its new system, saying, ""What's novel about ACEEE's Green Book^® is that it doesn't rely on the traditional miles-per-gallon rating to determine what's green. Instead the criteria are: fuel costs per year...health costs per year...tons of greenhouse gases emitted per year."

Free on the website are lists of the top twelve ranking cars of 2007, and the worst twelve ranking cars of 2007. Some of these might not be shocking to you, while some of them very well might be. I wasn't terribly surprised to see the Lincoln Navigator made the list of the "meanest cars of 2007." And should we? Should we be surprised that a car that on average gets less than thirteen miles to the gallon isn't fuel efficient? Or that it is bad for the environment?

Also included for free on the website are the best of each model type, such as Small SUV. The best of list tells the specifications for the car, the emission standards, the miles per gallon for city and country, the "green score", and then its final classification. The final classification is between "superior," "above-average", "average," "below average," and "inferior." Surely you do not want to be driving a car that is ranked as inferior.

If you already have a car in mind, and it is not listed on the website, then you can purchase access to the database for either nine dollars for thirty days, or twenty dollars for a year. You can then look at the statistics for every car produced between 2000 and 2007, with new cars being added as they are produced. If you want information about a car produced in 1998 or 1999, hardback books are available that tells the information, and earlier years will available soon.