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LaHood on Cash for Clunkers: The Statistics Are on Our Side. Ish.
by
Edward Niedermeyer
(IC: employee)
Published: August 4th, 2009
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One takeaway: CARS is good because it gets people into more fuel efficient cars, but the highway fund is running out because people are driving more fuel efficient cars. Also, apparently bolstering Ford sales is a major rationale for extending C4C. Y’know, after the whole “taking CO2 out of the air” thing. Speaking of which, former clunker detractor Sen Dianne Feinstein is on board for an extension, telling Automotive News [sub] “the original intent of the clunkers program was to encourage people to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, and the data so far tells us that’s exactly what’s happening,
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Edward Niedermeyer
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Published August 4th, 2009 11:18 AM
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The CARS program is a clear acknowledgement that CAFE failed to achieve a meaningful improvement in vehicle fuel mileage. How many billions will the government pay out to fix this Detroit-created fiasco?
The reason the highway fund is running out of cash is because the gas tax hasn't been increased and politicians of *any* stripe don't have the courage to increase it.
The biggest problem with CAFE is that the numbers went into a deep freeze in 1984 and didn't move appreciably for 25 years. Add in the Escalade sized loop hole for "working vehicles" and you know everything you need to know about CAFE's failure in the 1990s. During the earlier period when CAFE requirements incremented up on a regular basis, the fleet fuel economy in the US actually did improve dramatically. But, 25 years of inaction had their effect.