BailOut's Interview: Conservation in 2009 and Beyond

[ChinoCharles]

Brian Morris is certainly one of the more unorthodox Yaris owners in the country. While the online subcompact community clamors about the latest supercharger or one of a gaggle of other ways to squeeze every available horse out of our displacement-challenged engines, Brian is somewhere coasting with his car turned off. He belongs to an up-and-coming (and often misunderstood) niche in the world of automotive enthusiasts, one that places emphasis on economy over ego and MPG over Max HP. We now know these men and women to be Hypermilers, intent on making a gallon of gas go further than anyone imagined possible. However, Brian's involvement in the Hypermiling community is symptomatic of a larger ideology, and a timely one at that. As the United States is drowning in its own energy dependencies, there are people out there waking up and realizing their consumption affects more than just this month's bills. Brian is one of those people. I wanted to sit down and pick his brain a bit about what he stands for in hopes that we could all take a lesson from it. His battle is a noble one, but it is admittedly against the grain of societal norms. It takes courage, discipline, and a spirit of individuality that few possess.

Charles: Hello Brian.

Brian: Hello.

Charles: First of all, tell me how your personal fight against energy dependency began. Was there a breaking point or was it a gradual process?

Brian: It was a breaking point. It was the winter of 1991 and I was catching a ride back from the front lines of Operation Desert Storm on a truck as a cease fire had been called. One fellow remarked that it was over and he still didn't know why we were there. We had been shown many facets of the reasoning for our involvement in that conflict but none of them had ever made any sense. On the morning we'd first been sent there the daily reports showed 27 other "hot spots" around the world. Why was Kuwait special? One of the senior fellows answered, "We're here for the oil, dumbass. Plain and simple." That hit me like a ton of bricks as I realized that not only was he correct, but that we had just lost and killed people for no purpose other than continued access to oil.

Charles: Was that the end of active duty in your life? How did that experience affect your perception of the civilian world here at home?

Brian: That was not the end of my active duty (I went on to serve 5 more years) but that was the beginning of the end of it. My perception of the civilian world changed dramatically at that time because I realized that it's not just a President that sends us to war, but the entirety of Congress. Along with senior cabinet officials every one of those folks was totally on board with Gulf War 1. They all understood that oil is a critical component of the American way of life and they were willing to sacrifice other people's sons to keep their hands on it. That also got me to thinking about how we in the developed world live, how we use things, why oil is so important to us, etc.

Charles: What was the first step in your lifestyle change? Can you pick one thing?

Brian: I was exposed to lots of environmental issues as a child and saw some pretty horrible environmental things during my time in the military and while living in Texas but I always managed to think that it was someone else's problem. I think the first step in my lifestyle change came the day that I moved to Reno, NV and found recycle bins on my door step. They had been dropped off by the local waste management company when we opened an account with them. There was even a refrigerator magnet with the pickup schedule included. This was the first time I'd ever been anywhere where something like recycling was embraced.

Charles: Let’s skip ahead for a moment... September 11th, 2001. Did that day serve to strengthen your resolve, and if so to what degree? Was there anything you did differently on September 12th?

Brian: First let me say that my views of 9/11 are not in line with the mainstream perceptions. The first thought that entered my mind on 9/11 was "Well, that's what we get for playing in the sandbox, and for continually pushing people around. Someone finally pushed back.." Yes, it did help to steel my resolve some more but only a little. I knew they weren't upset with us just because we are addicted to oil, but also because of the way that we go about our foreign policies.

Charles: With your experience in the Gulf region, how sick are you now? Haha! It seems our involvement in the region has only deepened.

Brian: Let's keep it simple. I can sum up all of my feelings about that in one sentence: I feel that GWB is the worst President in my lifetime so far, and that he has done nearly irreparable harm to the image of our country and the way the world interacts with us.

Charles: I appreciate your concision. Now, back to energy… When did you first hear the term "Hypermiling?" What spurred your involvement in that community, and how has the Yaris played a role in that involvement?

Brian: I got a new job that required commuting over 4,500 vertical feet each day. The car that I had been driving had done decently on the plains of Texas but was aging doing horribly on mileage in the mountains. I searched on-line for some tips on fuel economy but all I could find was the garden variety stuff about car maintenance and tire pressure. In that time Mother Jones magazine ran an article on the fellow that started the hypermiling movement, Wayne Gerdes, and it was linked to a message board I followed. I read that article and it led me to CleanMPG.com and it was exactly what I had been looking for. It is a community of folks that are totally dedicated to the pursuit of fuel economy. Also in that time my last vehicle began to become costly to keep on the road due to mechanical repairs so I began researching my next car. I knew I wanted something fuel efficient and when I stumbled across the Yaris it not only fit that bill but it was cheap, good looking, and Toyota's reliability is something nice to have when you commute a 2-lane mountain road that has no shoulder for much of it. I also verified ahead of time that most of the hypermiling techniques would work with the Yaris (which they do, especially with the manual transmission).

Charles: Yes. I remember vividly when you broke the DFCO feature to the masses. I'm certain you have your ear to the ground on things like that. What is on the horizon? Or, what technology out of all of the others do you wish we had right now? Electric, Hydrogen, Hybrids... so much to choose from, but it is so hard to tell what is viable.

Brian: Hybrids impress me only as a stepping stone to better things. Hydrogen will never happen except possibly as a slow-charged range extender on an electric vehicle as it takes 3 times more energy to get the hydrogen gas from water than you get back when you burn it. The future is electrics. We should have been there in the 1970's and could have been there in the 1990's (reference "Who Killed the Electric Car?") but it is finally happening. The Asian manufacturers, more likely Chinese than Japanese, will bring them to us.

Charles: So where is your Tesla Roadster?

Brian: I have it parked in the garage of my McMansion.

Charles: OK, back to seriousness... the last thing I want to touch on is the relationship between your fight against energy dependency and personal choices you make for yourself. We know you as someone that eats healthy, exercises and all that good stuff. To what extent do you think your involvement in Hypermiling is a complement to your healthy lifestyle, or do the two operate somewhat independently?

Brian: To me they are all part of the same lifestyle. It's all about "The 3 Rs" - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. What good is it for me to buy all my food when I can grow some? Why would I buy a new <x> when the old once will still be serviceable with a little work, why would I conserve at home and not on the road, etc. I think the best way to explain it is that I treat life with a holistic view and yearn for a balance within myself. To me that's being *in* the world instead of just on it.

Charles: Finally, tell me a bit about what it has been like socially to live this lifestyle. Have your friends and family been receptive? Your wife supportive? What was the hardest part of making the change?

Brian: People (including friends and family) are a little skeptical at first but they usually come around. My wife offered some resistance at first but once you understand the entire dust-to-cradle loops living smarter, and therefore more conservatively, is simply logical. Now she's turning into an ecoist as well.

The hardest part for me was... well, it is difficult to explain as it was a combination of emotions. In its simplest form it was dealing with the guilt once I realized that I had lived so wrongly for the first 35 years of my life. So much waste, so much antipathy, so much disregard for the future - not only for the planet but for my own body. It can be difficult to admit when you are wrong about even a little thing, but admitting to a huge and lengthy string of errors can be downright sad. I had to work through those negative emotions and learn how to question myself, and more importantly how to be honest with myself about who I am and who I want to be, and how I want to leave my mark on the world.

Charles: So do you think you've found your place now?

Brian: I have found my place within conservation but I am still working to change parts of myself that I think need it. I never want to be the guy that says, "Well, that's just the way I am." If there is room for improvement then change is necessary.

Thanks again to Brian for taking some time to speak with me. I sincerely hope that as time goes on we can learn something from people like him. They are all around us. Society is conforming to scarcity, as it always has and as it always will. Those that don't will inevitably fall. We can all do our part to help, whether it be one step at a time or in a drastic epiphany of change and adaptation. Whatever your favorite flavor of progress may be, tap into it this year. Do something more. Now is the time!