The Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages staff news blog, The Blotter, attempts to blame the Texas traffic jam and gasoline shortages in advance of Hurricane Rita on SUV ownership, linking to a study I posted on the subject as evidence to put the state in a bad light:

One root of the problem was evident in the aerial shots of clogged freeways: They were choked with trucks and SUVs that have massive gas tanks and get shitty mileage. The math is not so difficult…

Texas ranks number two in the country in total SUV registrations and in SUVs as a percentage of all vehicles, trailing only California. SUVs account for only about 7.5 percent of Texas registrations, but that figure does not count pick-up trucks, and does not begin to do justice to the parade of gas guzzlers that took to the freeways leaving Houston last week.

Rubbish.

Texas only ranks number two in total SUV registrations because it is the second largest state in the U.S., but when factored as a percent of its population, Texas is actually well below average, ranking 31 of 51 (including Washington, D.C.).