The person who calculated this bit of information is now, and has been a professor at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown for the last forty-some years. He says that: A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A new vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year. So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction reduced gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
The government claims 700,000 clunkers were replaced, so that is 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours’ worth of US consumption. More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $90 per barrel costs about $450 million dollars. So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $450 million. They spent $6.67 for every $1.00 they saved.
We've been assured, though, that they will do a much better job with our health care.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
cash for clunkers just put huge sums of money in the pockets of the auto industry... another scam.. just like the housing boom and mortgage loans.. no different than college loans.. i pity those poor suckers!!!
ReplyDeleteMost of the trade ins would have made good vehicles for impoverished people who didn't have any form of transportation.With minimum modification they could have increased the mileage to 18 mpg.What a shame they destroyed the motors and parted out the cars.What a waste.
ReplyDelete1:31 and 3:27
ReplyDeleteThe fact is that foreign auto makers benefited from this stupid program, and perfectly good autos were rendered scrap by this program that cost everyone due to the loss of value.