Heinz Kerry: SUVs Are Safer

To the environmentalists she funds with her billion-dollar philanthropy, SUVs are public enemy No. 1. But when it comes to her own personal driving needs, Teresa Heinz Kerry says she drives SUVs because they're safer.

"Safety first," she tells USA Today, which notes Monday that "four [of her] close relatives were killed in car crashes." What's more, Heinz Kerry says she needs the SUVs "to drive safely in snow and sand at her various homes," the paper explained.

The would-be first lady is said to be "angry that U.S. car manufacturers have taken so long to build a fuel-efficient four-wheel-drive vehicle." So she's now planning to buy a gas-electric hybrid Ford Escape.

She's no doubt also angry that U.S. power boat manufacturers have yet to build fuel-efficient watercraft, forcing her husband to tool around in that gas-guzzling luxury yacht she bought for him.

And Heinz Kerry must be absolutely livid at U.S. aircraft manufacturers, who have yet to devise a fuel-efficient way of powering private jets, leaving her no alternative but to fly around in a gas-eating Gulfstream V.

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