“I will admit, the last car I owned was a Prius,” McCarthy told a Google+ Hangout on May 19. She said she got rid of it after she moved from Boston to Washington, but — “I have my husband’s vehicle, that’s his work vehicle, that I can use. So I don’t own a car at this point, but it doesn’t mean I’m against cars. I don’t want people to think that. And I actually eat meat,” she added.
McCarthy did not say what kind of car her husband drives.
Appearing with McCarthy, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said electric vehicles not only reduce fossil-fuel use, they have another important feature — and that is “much less noise.”
“And if we have much less noise in the urban environment, how can we integrate that into how we design communities and buildings? Maybe we don’t have to shut the outdoors out so much, because the outdoors is more attractive — cleaner and quieter. So I think there’s a tremendous opportunity here.”
But in response to a question, Moniz confessed that he does not drive an electric car: “My contribution is my driving about two-and-a-half thousand miles a year,” he said.
“He lives really close to his work,” McCarthy explained.
Earlier in the interview, McCarthy touted the Obama administration’s “Sustainable Communities” initiative, a central-planning effort that envisions a more “liveable” world, where people can find affordable housing near jobs and shops, so they can walk, bicycle or take public transportation to destinations that are all close to home.