In this corner, the silent one: Gary Stankowski and his 2002 Toyota Prius.

“For the money and the technology that goes in it it and what it does; it is the best car I’ve owned,” Stankowski said.

In this corner, the big bad beast: Daniel Lubecki and his 2002 Hummer H2.

“They are pretty plush,” he said. “You’ve got all the frills.”

Compare the environmental impact: Seems like no contest right? It’s why Stankowski bought a Prius.

“For ecological reasons,” he said. “I just thought it was the right thing to do.”

Not why Lubecki bought the Hummer.

“People ask me, ‘did you know the mileage you were gonna get when you bought it?’” Lubecki said. “Yeah pretty much; I knew what I was getting into.”

AP

On the lot: Hummers.

But really it depends on who you talk to and the criteria.

At the pump it’s a no-brainer.

“Between 40 and 50,” Prius owner Stankowski said. “Right around 45 is typical.”

And that’s in the city.

The H2?

“From the day I bought it: 70,000 miles,” Lubecki said. “I’ve actually averaged 13.2 miles a gallon.”

But there is another way to do the math. The Dust To Dust study is published by a private West Coast research group. It takes everything into consideration — design, manufacture, delivery and vehicle life span — putting a per mile environmental cost to all vehicles.

So using that formula here is how the study breaks them down:

The Toyota Prius Hybrid: $3.24 a mile

The Honda Civic hybrid: $3.23 a mile

And the Big H2 Hummer: $3.02 a mile

“Really,” Stankowski said when he heard the results.

That’s not all: a Chevy Tahoe is $2.93 a mile, and the Hummer H3 is $1.94 a mile.

“All you hear is the hype and the propaganda against the big vehicles, so you kinda look at the short term,” Linda Lubecki said

How could this be?

“Because of the battery?” Stankowski said.

Yes: There are two major things that the study said drive up the environmental cost of hybrid vehicles.

Some environmentalists call the nickel mine in Sudburry, Ontario, one of the world’s worst environmental messes, saying it is the largest single point source for acid raid-causing chemicals in North America.

It is also the place where Toyota gets the nickel for the batteries that run its hybrid vehicles.

The nickel is smelted, removed from the rock and then it is shipped by container ship to Wales for refining. Its trip takes it to China where it is turned into nickel foam, then on to Japan to Toyota’s battery plant.

The trip, start to finish, is more than 10,000 miles, mostly on heavy polluting container ships.

A surprise even the Hummer owner.

“I think of the environmental aspect as the exhaust,” Lubecki said. “I didn’t realize the other environmental aspects: actually building the batteries and everything else.”

But our Prius owner does have a point.

“You could clean that up and you know diminish the environmental effects of it,” Stankowski said. “But you know the gas? That is not going to change.”

Even with pain at the pump, for the Lubeckis, the Hummer is catching.

“Pretty soon it’s like, ‘well I don’t like that car I want a Hummer myself,’” Lubecki said.

So they have his and hers: an H2 and an H3. The paint is custom.

“Oh it is the most amazing experience you’d ever want to live,” Linda Lubecki said.

So is there a winner?

“I don’t think we’ll dress in Leprechaun costumes anytime soon, but I think we feel a little better about it,” she said.

Everywhere but at the gas pump.