Reason Express criticizes the anti-SUV hysteria. Critics of the SUV say people don't "need" them, but:

Define "need" narrowly enough and everything outside of a 5-door econobox is positively insane. Take it further and all manner of inventions that make life a little easier can be seen as wants rather than needs. Air conditioning is a wasteful luxury -- and think how much more exercise we'd get if we'd lose the indoor plumbing! The problem with this view is that the great insatiable human want machine has a habit of driving humanity toward a better life. Look for a way to stop crapping in the woods, and you end up greatly improving hygiene and health. Morford doesn't seem to understand that wants can solve needs, and actually declares a huge blind spot with regard to improvements in automotive technology that have made the world a better place. He claims that there has been "absolutely zero significant revolution in automobile-engine technology in the past 50 years," and that this is "because of the oil and auto industries. It is not even a question. Of course it's because of the titanic truckloads of cash to be made by continuing to exploit the world's oil reserves."....In fact, we've seen -- and are seeing -- amazing leaps in engine efficiency, weight, and durability. Computer-designed combustion chambers get more horsepower and burn fuel more completely than anything dreamt of in the 1950s. Well-designed and maintained modern engines are closer to a closed system, spewing out much less pollution from tailpipes with virtually none of the ancillary drips and oozes. Back in the day, engines were expected to leak a little oil.

That's what gets me about a lot of Americans who claim to be concerned about the environment: they aren't willing to change their lifestyles in ways that show they really want to help protect the environment. Instead, they want to impose solutions on everybody.

Ironically, while I think that most of those concerns are over-blown, I live a life that is relatively environmentally correct--not because I feel obliged to, but because that's the way I prefer it for unrelated reasons. For example, I really like to walk, and live near enought my job that I can walk to and from work. We keep the heat turned down in the winter, partly to save money, but also because our skin is dry. My wife prefers freshly cooked stuff, so we eat very little pre-processed food, incidentally saving money that way. I like to bake things from scratch partly as a kind of hobby, but also because the stuff I prefer simply isn't available here commercially.

And both my wife and I are consitutionally opposed to the typical American lifestyle of buying lots of material goods, so that also involves saving a certain amount of energy. As a result, I feel that many supporters of environmentalism are hypocrites.