Cash for Clunkers: How Big an Environmental Boost?

Not even the most optimistic greens could have predicted that the federal government’s cash-for-clunkers program would work this well — more than 240,000 Americans have traded in their clunkers so far, and the program has already burned through its first round of funding. But green groups were a bit wary of cash for clunkers at the outset, concerned that the legislation’s requirements on fuel economy were too lax. Under the program, newly purchased passenger cars must have a minimum fuel-economy rating of 22 miles per gallon — hardly superefficient — and they need to be only 4 m.p.g

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The Sacrifice Gap

In his Inaugural address, Barack Obama summoned Americans to a “new era of responsibility” and challenged us to end the politics of “standing pat … and putting off unpleasant decisions.” It could have happened. If there was ever a President sitting on a high enough mountain of political capital to lead the country through a series of very painful but necessary political decisions, it is Obama

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