The Rochester-Mason City, Iowa and Austin area has been ranked No. 28 in the nation for its Internet interest in environmentally-conscious vehicles.

Austin was included in the report despite the fact Rochester is three times larger and Mason City, Iowa, is two times larger. Both have many more opportunities to shop for hybrid vehicles.a

Austin has Usem’s Inc., a GM dealer, and Holiday Ford, Lincoln and Mercury, and Holiday Cars, Inc., a Chrysler Corporation dealership.

All three American automakers offer hybrid vehicles.

“I think the gas prices drive the level of interest in hybrid vehicles,” said Nathan Toland, who manages the twin Ford, Lincoln, Mercury and Chrysler Corp. dealerships along West Oakland Avenue in Austin. “When gas prices are high, like they were last summer, there is more interest than at other times.”

Ford’s Fusion and Escape SUV are among the most popular hybrid models in America.

Chrysler’s Aspen and Durango SUV hybrid models are also attractive to buyers, according to Toland.

While today’s auto-buyers may be more analytical in their approach to car-buying, Toland expects the next generation of buyers to be more environmentally-conscious. “I really do,” he said, “I expect their interest to grow in environmentally conscious decisions.”

The rankings are based on Internet searches for hybrid cars and not actual sales.

Cars.com’s second-annual Green Cities Index ranks cities across the country based on their interest in going green behind the wheel. The list is calculated by evaluating the number of hybrid searches as a percentage of overall car searches in each market, then ranking them.

Like last year, West Coast shoppers and, more specifically, shoppers in the Pacific Northwest showed the greatest interest in hybrid vehicles. Eight of the top 10 cities on the list are in Oregon, California or Washington, with Eugene, Ore.; Portland, Ore.; and Santa Barbara, Calif., taking the top three spots. While West Coast cities seem to embrace hybrid vehicles more than their counterparts in the Midwest and on the East Coast, cities in the South lag behind most major cities in the country, with seven of the bottom 10 cities in Mississippi, Texas or Louisiana. Laredo, Texas, has the dubious distinction of being last on the list.

An Austin environmental spokesperson found the Cars.com information encouraging, but said there is much more to do on the clean fuels, clean cars front; especially with legislation.

“This fits well with the fact that people from the greater Austin area have contacted their legislators on numerous occasions to urge them to support the Minnesota Clean Cars Act, but unfortunately, the Legislature still hasn’t passed the state-based clean cars standards,” Merlene Stiles said. “We know that we have to make smart decisions for our own household, as well as reduce global warming pollution.”

Stiles is the Minnesota Environmental Partnership resource specialist.

The Cars.com rankings also suggest the next generation of car-buyers may be more environmentally-conscious than the previous generation.

“What’s interesting to note is, aside from the cities on the West Coast that one might guess would have a very strong interest in hybrid technologies, college towns rank high on the list for their interest in hybrid technologies,” Cars.com senior editor Joe Wiesenfelder said. “Among the top 15 cities on the list are a group of smaller cities with large state universities where hybrids are very popular, including Charlottesville, Va., home to the University of Virginia; Gainesville, Fla., home to the University of Florida; and Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin,” Wiesenfelder said.