The person who calculated this bit of information is a professor at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown, where he's worked for the last 40+ years.
He says that:
• A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
• A new 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 is 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.
They spent $8.57 for every $1.00 they saved.
…I'm pretty sure they will do a much better job with our healthcare though.
