The person who calculated this bit of information has been a professor
at The University of West Virginia in Morgantown, West Virginia for
the last forty some years.

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
of gas a year.

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

The government claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced 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.

We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved.

I'm pretty sure they will do a better job with our health care, though.