
'Cash For Clunkers' Program Is 10X As Expensive As Alternatives - Anon84
http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_articles/cash_clunkers_program_10x_expensive_co2_emissions_alternatives
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flooha
"Knittel did not analyze the program's other key objectives: stimulating the
economy and providing relief for automobile manufacturers."

I think the latter may be the ONLY real objective. Destroying perfectly good
cars, which required a certain amount of energy to produce and which are still
being productive, for the sake of reducing CO2 is just dumb.

How much CO2 was generated in making the new cars? How much CO2 will be
generated in making the new cars to replace the ,now empty, dealer lots?

Maybe I'm being harsh, but the whole thing just seems really dumb. So, the guy
standing next to you, with an car that gets 18mpg, gets thousands and
thousands off of a new car and you don't, because your car gets 19mpg. Dumb.
To top it off, you (and everyone else) get to pay for everyone else's new car!
(Even if you didn't get one.)

Ok, now I'm just ranting. I don't know all the facts, I haven't read pages and
pages of editorials or the official propaganda about how it's saving the
world...because I don't need to in order to know that it's dumb.

Does this program make sense to you when you look at something like this:

[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/...](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html)

Congrats to those who profited from this, it's a pretty good scam.

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derobert
"How much CO2 was generated in making the new cars? How much CO2 will be
generated in making the new cars to replace the ,now empty, dealer lots?"

Nitpick: You're counting those emissions twice.

You can count the CO₂ emissions either when the car is sold ("how much was
generated in making the new cars") or when the car is manufactured ("how much
CO2 will be generated in making [their replacements for the lot]"), but not
both!

If it isn't clear why, consider that in the future, those replacement cars
will be sold. Since you've already counted the CO₂ to make them, you clearly
can't count it again on sale.

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dkl
I thought the program wasn't just about CO2, but also about stimulating the
economy.

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tocomment
FTA: "When burned, a gallon of gasoline creates roughly 20 pounds of carbon
dioxide"

Doesn't gasoline weigh around 6 lbs per gallon? How can that turn into 20? oh
wait, oxygen from the air maybe?

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mikeryan
Yes the oxygen is added on vaporization

<http://www.terrapass.com/blog/posts/how-to-turn-8-p>

