Cash for Clunkers
What An Ideal Green New Deal for Transportation Might Look Like
A truly green new deal must focus on reducing the amount Americans drive, a new report argues — and doing so will take an unprecedented portfolio of investments into sustainable modes.
March 21, 2022
Programs that Pay Residents to Give Up Cars Gain Support Worldwide
France may soon pay its residents to trade their private cars for e-bikes, vehicle-share services, and even transit passes — and the move is re-igniting the conversation about unconventional ways our governments can subsidize the greenest modes of transportation.
April 16, 2021
Don’t Bring Back Cash for Clunkers Because of COVID-19
"Cash for Clunkers" was a clunker of a policy. Let's not repeat that mistake.
May 13, 2020
We Can’t Afford a Repeat of the 2009 Auto Bailout
Three members of Congress are pushing the feds to provide financial relief to automakers during COVID-19. That didn't go so well 11 years ago.
May 11, 2020
Brookings: “Cash for Clunkers” Wasn’t Worth It
Turns out paying people to buy cars isn't a great policy for the economy or the environment. That's the determination of a pair of Brookings Institution researchers who evaluated the effectiveness of the 2009 Cash for Clunkers program.
October 31, 2013
GAO: Economic Recovery Benefits of ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Are ‘Uncertain’
"Cash for clunkers," the White House's much-touted program encouraging trade-ins for more fuel-efficient autos, had an "uncertain" impact on economic recovery, according to a new audit from the independent Government Accountability Office (GAO) -- largely because it remains unclear how many of the car sales it spurred would have occurred without taxpayer subsidies.
April 30, 2010
A Common Thread in the Home Buyer’s Tax Credit and ‘Cash for Clunkers’
Back in the days of "cash for clunkers," which saw the Obama administration send nearly $3 billion in taxpayer-funded rebates to boost the sagging auto industry, our Ryan Avent and several other economics wonks pointed out an inconvenient fact: Many participants in the program would have bought cars anyway, and the rebates only pulled their purchases forward in time.
January 20, 2010
Grassley Looking Into Citibank’s Million-Dollar ‘Clunkers’ Deal
Chuck Grassley (IA), the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, today asked the U.S. DOT to answer a question Streetsblog Capitol Hill first wondered about months ago: How did Citibank, the beleaguered recipient of a $45 billion government bailout, snag a contract to administer the Obama administration's "cash for clunkers" program?
January 5, 2010
‘Cash for Clunkers’ Backer Sutton Steps it Up for Ohio Transit
Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) was one of the prime movers behind the economically and environmentally misguided "cash for clunkers" program, but she is switching gears to help save transit in Lorain County, Ohio, where bus service could be canceled in 2010 after voters rejected a sales tax increase to raise operating funds.
December 11, 2009
Has the Government Been Bailing Out Sprawl?
One of the themes of the financial and economic crisis we've faced over the past two years is that government, pressed into responding to serious economic pain, has often found itself supporting the activities that got us into this mess in the first place.
November 2, 2009