According to the Wall Street Journal & Ecogeek.org, the US Congress is considering introducing a “Cash for Clunkers” bill, which would allow people to trade in their old, gas guzzlers, for a government cash voucher that can be used towards the purchase of a more fuel efficient vehicle. A similar concept has been used in Europe, and has recently been adopted in Germany. There are two potential bills being thrown around on the Hill, one is from Rep. Sutton, and one is from Sen. Feinstein:
According to the WSJ, “Ms. Sutton’s bill would provide buyers vouchers of $3,000 to $5,000 if they turn in cars that are eight years old or older and buy new cars that get at least 24 miles per gallon on the highway or trucks that get 27 mpg (The money could also be used for mass transit.),… Sen. Feinstein’s bill, [would] provides incentives of $2,500 to $4,500, [and] the “clunker” could get no more than 18 miles per gallon, ( The new car would have to exceed fuel-efficiency standards for its class by at least 25%).” Another difference, is that “Ms. Feinstein’s bill wouldn’t cover vehicles that cost more than $45,000, while Ms. Sutton would cap the new car’s price at $35,000.”
I LOVE this idea, and actually wanted to try and propose the concept to our state legislature. This type of program has ENORMOUS potential to both reduce gasoline demand, as well as reduce emissions significantly since a 14 year old vehicle produces 19 times more smog-forming emissions than a 2004 or newer model (Link).
Nonetheless, if I were to introduce the bill, I would take a slightly different approach. I would write the bill as follows: Buyers will receive a voucher of $4,000 to $5,000 if they turn in a vehicle that is either older than 10 years old, or, gets a maximum fuel-economy of 18 mpg, and if the buyer purchases any vehicle that gets at least 36 mgp that costs less than $40,000. Maybe this is just a number game, but I like thinking that for every car sold under this program, you get the emissions reduction and reduced fuel demand equivilant to taking two of the turned cars off the streets. I also like the idea of keeping the price point low, to act as an indicator for car companies where they should be aiming with their new fuel efficient vehicles.
Now, we should be doing something like this for the clunker trucks at the Port of LA too!
