Thursday, February 18, 2010

Clunker Math

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 a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce an individual's gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim the program turned 700,000 vehicles 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.
Which means they spent $8.57 for every dollar saved.

I'm pretty sure they'll do a great job with health care though...

Terry Evans
Field Operations Manager-New Orleans/Shreveport-Monroe, Louisiana

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