Word: cashed
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...even the most optimistic greens could have predicted that the federal government's cash-for-clunkers program would work this well - more than 240,000 Americans have traded in their clunkers so far, and the program has already burned through its first round of funding. But green groups were a bit wary of cash for clunkers at the outset, concerned that the legislation's requirements on fuel economy were too lax. Under the program, newly purchased passenger cars must have a minimum fuel-economy rating of 22 miles per gallon - hardly superefficient - and they need to be only 4 m.p.g...
...initial data released by Department of Transportation, however, shows that so far cash for clunkers has been a green success. The clunkers averaged 15.8 m.p.g., compared with 25.4 m.p.g. for the new vehicles purchased, for an average fuel-economy increase of 61%. On the whole, American drivers are trading in inefficient trucks and SUVs for much more efficient passenger cars. Car manufacturers like Nissan are already retooling some models to improve their fuel economy so they can qualify for the credits. The early numbers were enough to convince California Senator Dianne Feinstein to go from criticizing cash for clunkers...
...while cash for clunkers has helped out the U.S. auto industry and the environment - two entities that have clearly seen better days - it shouldn't obscure the need for addressing the real green cost of driving: gas prices. It's not the car or truck that adds greenhouse-gas emissions into the atmosphere - it's burning gasoline. There's no denying that it's beneficial for Americans to climb out of their clunkers and into more efficient cars, but what happens if drivers take advantage of the lowered cost of their fuel bill by driving more? The environmental benefits...
...reasons we've been able to subsidize a wasteful SUV lifestyle for so long. A smart tax would stabilize the price of gas at a high enough level to discourage driving - and it would generate revenue that could be used for a number of green programs, including cash for clunkers. Certainly, efficiency is an important goal - a new report from McKinsey & Co. found that the U.S. economy could save $1.2 trillion through 2020 by investing $520 billion in various efficiency investments - and encouraging the switch to less wasteful cars is smart policy. But unless we end the era of cheap...
...everyone sees the program as a win-win. Economist David Rosenberg at Toronto investment firm Gluskin Sheff worries that today's sales boost could lead to tomorrow's sales slump. He likens the current cash-for-clunker boost to the 0% financing that automakers introduced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. As a result of those incentives, motor-vehicle sales perked up and the economy got a nice boost. "But what all these gimmicks do is bring forward consumption - they don't create anything more than a brief spending splurge at the expense of future performance," Rosenberg...