One for the watercooler
By Leslie Moore Mira
September 1, 2009
For doubting Thomases of Cash for Clunkers handouts, here's more fodder for skepticism in the face of what proved blowout media coverage: according to a University of California-Davis study, the federal government's Cash for Clunkers program is expected to have paid "at least 10 times the 'sticker price' to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide."
"While carbon credits are projected to sell in the U.S. for about $28 per ton (today's price in Europe was $20), even the best-case calculation of the cost of the clunkers rebate is $237 per ton," the university said, citing a report by UC Davis transportation economist Christopher Knittel.
"When burned, a gallon of gasoline creates roughly 20 pounds of carbon dioxide. I combined that known value with an average rebate of $4,200 and a range of assumptions about the fuel economy of the new vehicles purchased and how long the clunkers would have been on the road if not for the program," Knittel said through the statement. "I even assumed drivers didn't change their habits, although some analysts have suggested that the owners of new vehicles will drive more than they would have with their old cars."
"In the end, the lowest cost to remove one ton of carbon from the environment was $237. More likely scenarios produced a cost of more than $500 per ton, even when we accounted for reductions in pollutants other than greenhouse gases," he said. "That suggests the Cash for Clunkers program is an expensive way to reduce carbon."
Knittel's study did not analyze the program's other goals of stimulating the economy and providing relief for automobile manufacturers, the university said. Knittel's analysis, titled "The Implied Cost of Carbon Dioxide Under the Cash for Clunkers Program," was published online by the University of California Energy Institute and was funded by the Energy Institute and the Institute of Transportation Studies.
http://www.platts.com/weblog/oilblog/2009/09/01/one_for_the_wat.html
the goal of Cash for clunkers was to stimulate auto sales and the economy and improve the enviroment. It did none of those. It just decreased auto repairs and car donations.
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