Jay Leno's Garage: Green or Mean?

You know those guys who order large french fries and a Diet Coke when they hit the fast-food drive-thrus? Everyone laughs at them. How silly to offset hydrogenated oils with aspartame, right? But here’s the thing: Making a little change is better than making none at all. We’re talking about the difference between 810 calories for the fry/soda combo with a large Coke Classic and 500 for the sugarless version.

There are times when efforts at balancing damage with do-gooding just plain confuse me, though. Take the case of Late Show host Jay Leno’s car collection. If I counted correctly, the site JayLenosGarage.com (yes, it exists) listed 118 cars and planes in the funnyman’s collection. Maybe he keeps them strictly for admiring their craftsmanship and actually saves fuel by keeping them off the roads. My guess, however, is that he puts those old engines to use, speed racing while simultaneously ozone-dissolving.

Leno recently announced the greening of his mega-garage. Solar panels were installed and a wind turbine planted on the premises. An enviroclean slate? Not quite. Drawing on direct quotations from a New York Times profile, Auto Blog Green determined that Jay was actually bragging about the excesses of his investment: “Jay Leno can, on bright and sunny days, generate enough electricity to power more than 40 homes with his solar system. But, that's enough for just 40 percent of the power needs of his garage.” Yikes. Check out the video below for Jay’s own demo of his new toy. It’s actually a very cool investment, it's just in a very strange context.

Interest in wind farms has rapidly risen in the past few years thanks to pressure on alternative fuel needs. The sad truth is that the economy has halted new projects and stalled funding on existing ones. That doesn’t mean that production is out, however, and it certainly doesn’t mean that operating turbines are out of commission. Many states have already offset their coal and gas consumption by getting a head start on wind energy.

Positive feedback and promising statistics will surely motivate financiers as new projects get laid out in the next couple of years. Personal turbines may be the wave of the future. Do your homework now and maybe your community can get in line for cleaner sustainable energy in the near future. Just be sure to arm yourselves against the NIMBY protesters who don’t appreciate the turbines’ form-meets-function appeal. Send them here for a mind-opening look at the structures through artists’ eyes.

Keep doing your bit, little by little. Just because you use a canvas tote bag doesn’t mean you have to re-roof your house in solar panels. But dump the obvious, if you can. A large french fry is no match for 118 gas-guzzling machines. Maybe it’s time for a charity auction, Jay.