Detroit’s Big Three are in trouble because there are 40 million more registered vehicles in the U.S. than licensed drivers. Because of the overhang, and excess car-making capacity, the U.S. Senate voted down the Bush administration’s auto bailout bill. Undeterred, President Bush managed to finesse some Troubled Asset Relief Program money to automakers.

Sen. Susan Collins is co-sponsoring another backdoor bailout, the so-called “Cash for Clunkers” program. The idea is to scrap a few million cars, at taxpayer expense, to boost demand for new cars. Call it accelerated obsolescence.

A registered vehicle getting less than 18 mpg would qualify the owner for a credit of up to $4,500 toward the purchase of a more fuel-efficient car. The Collins’ credit amounts to a retroactive rebate for gas guzzlers – a perverse incentive not available at the time of purchase.

Conceivably, cars now sitting idle without plates could be re-registered simply to get the credit, a swap that would increase, not reduce, emissions.

There is a simpler mechanism that is revenue-positive: the gas tax. Adding a nickel a year for 10 years to the gas tax would motivate drivers to reduce miles traveled, choose more fuel-efficient vehicles, share rides, or even migrate to mass transit. Revenues could be dedicated both to highway improvements and to pollution mitigation.

The clunker cash-out could easily cost taxpayers $20 billion over four years – another example of Washington’s borrow-and-spend mentality.

Bill Hine, Peru