Is Cash For Clunkers Sound Environmental Policy Update

The efficiency of the Cash for Clunkers program as environmental policy has been questioned in many corners. He is the NY Times Green Blog:

"'The program is really not cost effective as a climate policy,' said Mr. Wara, who is an assistant professor at Stanford Law School and a faculty fellow at the university’s program on energy and sustainable development. 'It might be a great economic stimulus — we’re selling a lot of cars — but this is not the way to deal with mobile sources of climate change.'

Mr. Wara found that the program cost between $200 to $400 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions avoided, and Mr. Knittel’s estimates went up to $500 per ton. By contrast, the climate bill recently passed in the House of Representatives would result in a $28 per ton carbon price in 2020, according to analysis by the Congressional Budget Office."

Here a link to previous Cash For Clunkers posts. Sphere: Related Content