Cash for Clunkers already headed to the scrap pile?
July 30, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
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| Rusty and McQueen from Pixar’s CARS |
UPDATED (7/31, or less than 24 hours later): Acting faster than anyone probably thought Congress was capable of, the House approved an influx of $2 billion in additional funding today to the program to keep it going. The Senate is scheduled to take up the measure next week.
The government’s new Cash For Clunkers program (C.A.R.S) has been active for less than a week, but it looks to be heading for a premature end. The Associated Press is already reporting that the the Department of Transportation has been making calls to legislators to let them know that they’re planning to suspend the program at midnight tonight. (Thursday 7/30)
Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns about large backlogs in the processing of the deals in the government system, prompting the suspension.
A survey of 2,000 dealers by the National Automobile Dealers Association found about 25,000 deals had not yet approved by NHTSA, or nearly 13 trades per store. It raised concerns that with about 23,000 dealers taking part in the program, auto dealers may already have surpassed the 250,000 vehicle sales funded by the $1 billion program.
There is still the possibility that the program could be extended with another infusion of cash, which the AP story does not mention.
The relative merits of the program and the effect on actually having any impact on improving fleet vehicle mileage have been debated elsewhere, but it was clearly a popular program during its first week in existence. (Did you see the TV commercials?) But as Elana Schor over at Streetsblog Capitol Hill pointed out the other day, some experts claimed that only a marginal number of cars would be bought that wouldn’t have been purchased regardless.
While the DOT estimates that as many as 250,000 autos will be scrapped before the initial infusion of cash runs out, car industry forecasters at Edmunds.com believe only 50,000 extra sales will result, leaving the taxpayers with a whopping $20,000 bill for every new car purchased.
Minnesotans need to drive less to exceed 2025 clean-air goal
July 22, 2008By Andrew Bielak
Better fuel-efficiency standards could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, a University of Minnesota study finds, but only if Minnesotans continue to drive less. (Minneapolis Star Tribune — Bill McAuliffe)
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