Laura Snider

“Cash for Clunkers” a spendy way to cut carbon

August 17, 2009 · Posted by in Energy 

Cash for Clunkers a spendy way to cut carbon.

Greg Signore, owner of Elm Auto Sales, is pictured at his used car business in Kearny, N.J. (AP photo)

Turns out that while the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program may be a great economic stimulus for hurting car dealerships — it’s not a great way (or at least not a cheap way) to cut the nation’s carbon footprint.

This is from the New York Times blog Green Inc.:

“The program is really not cost effective as a climate policy,” said Michael Wara, who is an assistant professor at Stanford Law School and a faculty fellow at the university’s program on energy and sustainable development. “It might be a great economic stimulus — we’re selling a lot of cars — but this is not the way to deal with mobile sources of climate change.”

Mr. Wara found that the program cost between $200 to $400 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions avoided, and Mr. Knittel’s estimates went up to $500 per ton. By contrast, the climate bill recently passed in the House of Representatives would result in a $28 per ton carbon price in 2020, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

Read Green Inc.’s full post on the high carbon cost of the “Clunkers” program, or read a story by Alicia Wallace in the Daily Camera about how the program is giving a boost to Boulder County car dealers. Check out the government’s cash-for-clunkers Web page for more information about the program, officially called the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS.

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7 Responses to ““Cash for Clunkers” a spendy way to cut carbon”

  1. Beautiful Women : on October 26th, 2010 1:38 am

    does anyone know a very realiable car dealer in greenwell springs LA ?;~.

  2. Storage Chest · on November 13th, 2010 2:45 am

    you should always check their backgrounds first if they are reliable car dealers ;;:

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