(Note: Due to previous misinterpretations of my sarcasm — no, I do not actually believe that vegetarians are sinners — I feel it necessary to mark all occurrences of sarcasm in the below post in bold.)

Gosh, there’s just so much good news in the environmental world — I feel it’s my duty, in the name of balanced journalism, to bring you some bad news.

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The U.K.’s Chancellor of the Exchequer — I think I want that job just for the fancy title — unveiled a budget yesterday that would exempt low-polluting cars from an excise tax. You would think this would be good news, but you would be wrong:

The only car that would qualify for the break, Honda Motor Co.’s Insight, hasn’t been sold in Britain since it finished its five-year production run last year. … No cars qualify for the exemption to the tax.

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“I want to do more to encourage cleaner fuels and cars,” said the Chancellor (presumed sarcasm mine).

Insidious, but clever, I must say.

Falling in the insidious-but-not-clever category: Rush Limbaugh. His response to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy‘s listing of the “Greenest” and “Meanest” cars:

I’m ecstatic. … Each year, ACEEE rates vehicles on their overall impact on the environment, with vehicles earning the best scores dubbed the ‘Greenest,’ and those with the worst scores labeled the ‘Meanest,'” and I am proud and I am honored that my car is among the meanest cars made and sold today.

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Apparently he’s not alone; in contrast to reports that SUV sales are down, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports today that February SUV sales were up 5 percent over a year ago, outpacing the rest of the auto industry. Small- and medium-sized SUVs have “skyrocketed,” according to the article. Says one industry researcher:

The idea that there were falling sales for all SUVs was really more of a perception than reality — it was just an assumption that people made.

Awesome.

And just to end it all on a feel-good note, we have this fun tidbit from the U.K.:

A study released by AA Personal Loans [Tuesday] has claimed that the effect that their vehicle is going to have on the environment is one of the least pressing concerns that motorists have when purchasing a new car.

Only 6 percent of folks wanted to buy a car that was greener than their current one.

I’ve depressed myself straight out of sarcasm.