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Debt for CLUNKERS - here is the truth!
A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a
year of gasoline.
· A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a
year.
· So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline
consumption by 320 gallons per year.
· They claim 700,000 vehicles - so that's 224 million gallons / year.
· That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
· 5 million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day's US consumption.
· And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at
$70/bbl.
· So, all of us taxpayers contributed $3 billion to save $350 million a year?
How good a deal was that???
Oh yes, we borrowed the $3 billion from China, so we are paying them $100 million a year in interest.


posted on Thursday, September 17, 2009 2:02 AM | Tags: Politics Barack Obama

Comments

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# re: Debt for CLUNKERS - here is the truth!
Posted by Darryl Sandoe
on 9/17/2009 5:15 AM
Of those clunkers how many were actually on the street? Many were probably junkyard cars.
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# re: Debt for CLUNKERS - here is the truth!
Posted by Dave Dilts
on 9/19/2009 10:59 AM
Debt for Clunkers- Here is the Truth

Jamie, I somewhat agree with the gist of your discussion, however, you only gave only a possible truth with several unknown variables, with the question, ”How good a deal was that???”

Jamie…I personally believe that it is way too soon to answer your question with your numbers. I cannot recall President Obama saying a single solitary word about this being a great “deal” in the immediate future.

As I recall, the President did say a couple of things about trying to use cash for clunkers to 1) help kick start the auto industry, 2) get gas guzzling autos off the road and replaced with more economical, environmentally friendly and efficient hybrids, etc. autos and 3) help to reduce our overall dependence on oil (foreign or domestic). These were, as I remember, the highpoints of the “deal”.

So by using your numbers which are probably accurate for discussion…maybe a shade low, but OK. At only $70 a bbl for oil…today, we save $350 million…and next year? The year after? And on and on….at only $70/bbl. How much do we save if and when the price goes back to $140 or more….$700++ million. Just last year it was there.

My daughter was just out 250 miles in the Gulf on a drilling ship and will be returning next week as the geologist from BP on site…Jamie, I do not think BP or anyone else is going to drill if prices are expected to drop much below $70…they are just making money there.

I do not agree with this President on too many of his initiatives, but this one, at least did get a plant in Ohio to recall 800 workers last week and to me…that is priceless, or more importantly 1 ½ New Song Fellowship Churches of people working that were not before.

By the way…if the Cash for Clunkers by Obama did not make sense to you, or anyone else, then you must have been really surprised at President Bush when he initiated a program by the same name in 1992 as an environmental friendly initiative, but environmentalists wanted more and it got shelved. Oil then was an average price of $19.25 per bbl for the year.

Way to early to tell if it was a great deal or not…kind of depends on whether we pay back China, doesn’t it?
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