LA Times - Critics say 'cash for clunkers' bill is a lemon
The $1-billion bill, backed by the auto industry, would pay consumers to trade in one gas guzzlers for another.
Critics contend that the "cash for clunkers" bill, which has auto industry backing, was designed more to boost auto sales than to reduce global warming.
The bill would provide vouchers toward the purchase of more efficient vehicles to people who junk their less-efficient cars. But critics say the improvements required in the trade -- as little as 1 mile per gallon for certain light trucks -- are so lax that the federal government could end up subsidizing consumers who swap one gas guzzler for another.
"It is amazing how quickly a good idea can go bad in Washington," said Feinstein and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) in an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal. It was headlined: "Handouts for Hummers."
Feinstein, Collins and other senators had sponsored an alternative that would have imposed stricter mileage standards and allowed used cars to be purchased with the vouchers.
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