by Joseph L. Bast and Jay Lehr

About the authors: Joseph L. Bast is president of the Heartland Institute, a conservative research and education organization. Jay Lehr is science director for the Heartland Institute and senior scientist of Environmental Education Enterprises, a producer of continuing education courses for environmental professionals.

Air pollution is generally counted as a cost, or “negative externality,” of popular ownership of cars and trucks. Often missing from such calculations, however, are the beneficial effects on human health and the environment delivered by cars and trucks when they replaced prior modes of travel and cartage that polluted more. “The modern American automobile,” writes [public policy journalist] Gregg Easterbrook, “is the cleanest system of transportation ever devised.”

Environmental Benefits of the Automobile

Before the advent of motorized...