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On Friday, the Senate approved additional federal funding for the Car Allowance Rebate System, more popularly known as “cash for clunkers.” Originally initiated in late July with a one billion dollar budget, the program has proved to be a boon for the struggling auto industry in the U.S. Pitched to the public as a way to improve the economy as well as the environment by encouraging trade-ins of older vehicles for new more fuel efficient ones, “cash for clunkers” has certainly boosted sales by an estimated 220,000 units. The program’s environmental impact, however, has been much more of a subject of contention. Some critics say that the credit guidelines could have been much more stringent as to encourage more consumers to purchase extremely fuel efficient vehicles. Environmentalists have also pointed out that the three billion dollars in federal funding for “cash for clunkers” has been allocated from stimulus money dedicated to the Department of Energy for renewable energy projects.

GUEST: Henry Jacoby, Co-Director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change