Dear Editor,

I am a 16-year-old student from Yampah Mountain High School. I was recently in a class called “All About Oil.” In our class we learned about the oil in Iraq and how important it is that the United States still has our share in their oil. As you can see, the president will do anything for it. Even if it isn’t a good decision. I believe that there is a better way to get oil besides fighting. Why don’t we try peace!

We also have been talking about hybrid cars lately and how and why they are good for the environment. A fellow classmate and I set up a day for the class to go to the Honda and Toyota dealerships to check them out. There we learned how they operated and why they were so clean.

The hybrid cars get 51 miles per gallon depending on where you are driving. It can get up to 650 miles per full tank of gas. Their tanks only hold 13.2 gallons of gas. That is a lot of money saved and a lot of the natural resources conserved throughout time. The hybrid is also an Ultra Low Emission Vehicle. It is the world’s cleanest-burning internal combustion production vehicle. It has a self-charging battery which charges as you go and slow down. When you are sitting at a stop light the car sounds like it shuts off, but really it is charging its battery. You never have to plug the battery in. The battery pack lasts up to eight years with an 80,000 mile warranty.

The hybrid is low emission, fuel efficient, and has a 93-horsepower, 1.3-liter VTEC engine with a recharging battery pack. It is extremely safe and so far has had absolutely no problems. They are really safe cars.

If I had the money to buy one of these cars I would buy it in two seconds. I think that if there is anyone out there that has $20,000 and wants to buy a car that is better for the environment, they should buy one of these hybrid cars. My personal opinion of the hybrid is that it is the best car in the world!

It’s important to conserve natural gas and oil because one of these days we are going to run out and that is why it will be good to buy one of these awesome cars.

Jacque Mauer

Yampah Mountain High School