Climate FactCheck: Exactly How Much Did The Democrats' 'Cash-for-Clunkers' Reduce Global Warming?

Quack anti-science runs rampant among progressives and Democrats...a recent classic example was their 'cash-for-clunker' program.....

(click on image to enlarge)

The Democrats' 2009 plan to stop global warming, and stimulate the economy at the same time, turned out to be a major flop on all fronts.

This article provides a synopsis of the failed "clunkers" economic stimulation; this PDF provides a detailed 41-pages of analysis.

Regarding the impact on global warming, we need to turn to the math to assess the infamous "clunker" program.

First, from Wikipedia we know there are an estimated 270 million U.S. passenger vehicles as of the end of 2013.

Next, from the EPA we know the average U.S. vehicle emits some 4.75 metric tonnes of CO2 per year.

Using these two factoids, we can do the multiplication and determine that a year's worth of auto CO2 emissions would weigh-in at approximately 1,282,500,000 tonnes.

That's a lot (1.3 billion tonnes 'a lot'). But would it affect global warming if the U.S. were to ban all passenger vehicle driving for a year and elimanate all those tonnes in one fell swoop?

The simple 'C3' estimating tool provides the answer to that. Observe the global warming impact that has a green square drawn around it in the above image - the temperature impact is zero. 

Yes, that's right, banning all car and light truck driving for a year in the U.S. will have zilch impact on global temperatures. (Btw, if U.S. vehicle emissions were double, the impact would still be nothing - try 2.6 billion in the 'C3' estimator to check it out.)

Regarding the 'cash-for-clunkers' program, there were a total of 660,000 clunkers disposed of, and for our math, we assume that they spewed twice the amount of CO2 - 9.5 metric tonnes per year instead of 4.75. When the multiplication is completed, it means the "clunkers" total CO2 emissions removed from the road came to 6,270,000 tonnes (millions, not billions).

What would happen to global warming if the Democrats ran the 'ClunkerCare' program each of the next 20 years and never allowed a single replacement of the junked, CO2 belching jalopies with newer, more efficient cars?

Again, the 'C3' estimating tool provides the answers, which are the resulting numbers with a cyan circle around them on the above image. Whoo-wee...it's zero impact again, even after 20 years of ClunkerCare.

Hey, did we mention progressive quacks yet? Democratic anti-science?

Previous articles on quackery from politicians: light bulbs and plastic bags.