And yet more on scrappage

It's a funny thing, and I can't explain it, but of all the things that Her Majesty's Government have done in the past few years, the one that really makes me irate is the scrappage scheme. I wrote a mild mannered tirade against it when we were threatened with it, and I wrote another when its introduction was announced.

Hence, when I saw an article in the Times telling us that the evidence suggests that the scheme will actually result in an increase, rather than a decrease in CO2 emissions, I couldn't resist another quick post.

Research by the US Department of Energy calculates that the average new car sold in 2009 required the energy equivalent of 1,540 gallons of petrol to manufacture. The figure dwarfs the fuel savings of 61.2 gallons per year and means that it will take 25 years before the new car repays its “fuel debt”.

And that doesn't even take into account the energy used in scrapping cars and the environmental impact of shipping Korean superminis half way around the world. Yes, if you turned in your faithful old banger for a shiny new '59 reg' Hyundai i10, you are one of those evil people who is destroying our planet. :-)

I must confess that my suspicion is that the government always knew that the measure would do nothing to reduce global CO2 emissions, but thought that it would look like a nice piece of environmental window dressing.