Texas is providing serious money to help people who own old cars as their primary modes of transportation replace them with ones that pollute less. A great idea and good thing all around.
State offering drivers up to $3,500 to ditch old cars
Terry Box, The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News (Texas)
August 10, 2007
Aug. 10--Old cars and trucks in the Dallas area -- many of them little more than smoking beaters -- will get a lot more valuable beginning in December.
In an effort to improve air quality in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the state will offer up to a $3,500 bounty of sorts on vehicles that are more than 10 years old -- pre-1996 cars and trucks that emit up to 30 times as much pollution as late-model vehicles.
Owners who agree to "retire" their vehicles will get $3,000 vouchers that can be used toward buying a new car or truck or a late-model used vehicle. If they opt to buy a hybrid, they can get $3,500. The program is strictly voluntary.
"By cleaning up some of the old cars and getting them off the road, you could put a real dent in the pollution numbers," said state Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, who sponsored the "accelerated vehicle-retirement program."
The program already has funds, generated by higher vehicle state-inspection fees in the Dallas and Houston areas.
Environmentalists regularly castigate big late-model SUVs such as the Excursion and the Hummer, but the dirtiest vehicles on the road are pre-1996 cars and trucks. The older cars also tend to be driven by the working poor and others who can't afford a new car or truck.
