Clunker Math

[onfire]

The person who calculated this bit of information is now and has been a professor at West Virginia University in Morgantown , West Virginia for the last forty years.

A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.


A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas a year.


So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction reduced gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year

.
The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.


That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil~5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.


More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.


So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million....


We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved.

I'm pretty sure they will do a better job with our health care, though.

 

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[piegrande]

I have been trying to find out how much energy it takes to make a new car. I still have no idea, but must wonder if the energy to make a new car is far greater than the energy saved by doing it. No one seems to ask that question.

 

[Smee]

I have been trying to find out how much energy it takes to make a new car. I still have no idea, but must wonder if the energy to make a new car is far greater than the energy saved by doing it. No one seems to ask that question.

I asked that question on another forum, but related to the energy expended to build a wind turbine versus the energy it produces . . . and the greenies went absolutely nuts!

First, they need to find a way to reduce the productions costs, then go to work. Unfortunately, that would require organization and common sense . . . two things against which the greenies are vehemently opposed.

I would love to see an alternative to the pollution of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, we aren't there yet. However, it doesn't mean we should be wasteful of the resources we have now.

 

[piegrande]

I am convinced in the long-term the answer is solar heat, there is no much of it on the planet. But, it will take a lot to make it practical, to move energy from day to night, to save it for cloudy spells. To do that research takes a strong, active economy in which money exists for research with no short-term financial goals. All the demands to shut down the economy in the short-term with no long-term replacemend transcends a mixture of insanity and stupidity.

Of course, if one follows closely the greenies, they hate human beings, and welcome any method which would reduce the world population to about six million, themselves included, you and me, not. So, they don't care if Algore starves billions of people.