Much like the wildly popular and probably successful Cash for Clunkers program earlier this year, a portion of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being allotted to a program for upgrading older, energy wasting appliances.

None of the important details have been released yet, such as “what Energy Star rating will my new refrigerator need to have?” But we can tell you this much right now:

• Rebates won’t be available until at least next March (remember, the stimulus plan was always intended to be spread out over two years)
• This isn’t new deficit spending, it’s just a part of the earlier approved stimulus package
• You can safely ignore this unless you’ve already been wanting to upgrade one of your appliances

Consumerism Commentary will likely never recommend spending money just to get a rebate, or coupon, or because the president says it’d be a good idea. Do some calculations and decide whether a more energy efficient appliance would be a good addition to your household.

There’s another interesting wrinkle I don’t remember from “Cash for Clunkers,” too:

The program will be run by state governments, which must identify and enact their rebate plans with federal government funding and approval.

This could mean that some states will have different energy consumption requirements, and it could mean that rebates may be processed faster, which was one of the more sympathetic complaints about how Cash for Clunkers was mishandled. On the other hand, they could be processed just as slowly, placing the blame squarely on the state government’s shoulders. I’m just speculating, though. We’ll naturally keep an eye on it and provide you with more details when they’re available.

However, if you’re looking to make any and all energy efficiency improvements, there are federal and state-level credits running now and through 2010.

‘Cash for appliance’ plan being finalized, UPI, 27 Nov. 2009

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Editor’s note: The program which was once suspended is still available through Labor Day, 2009.

Yesterday the U.S. Senate passed a War funding appropriations bill that paradoxically included a piece of legislation popularly referred to as the “Cash for Clunkers” program.

In an earlier article where Flexo pointed out the weirdness of including “guns in national parks” legislation in a law about regulating the credit card industry, reader TJJ added a comment alerting us to the “Clunkers” program being inserted into the War funding bill. TJJ was right, and so here we are. Lawmakers attach irrelevant legislation as part of larger, more popular legislation.

So that’s the first thing that doesn’t thrill me about the Clunkers program. The second is the name. A “clunker” is a car that doesn’t work anymore. Yet, this program only applies to used cars that are still in drivable condition.

Image of an actual clunker courtesy of Mike McCaffrey

More importantly, I think it offers too much for too little. There’s a $3,500 credit for trade-ins that improve your mileage by 4 MPG, and $4,500 for a 10 MPG upgrade.

I would’ve liked to see a program that required the new car to get at least 30 MPG, a number high enough to actually make some kind of impact on our dependence on foreign oil. Maybe I’m too accustomed to getting 45 MPG, but I view mileage over 30 as easily achievable with any kind of car, and it seems ridiculous to entice someone upgrading from, say, 14 MPG to 24 MPG.

So, much like the new energy efficiency tax credits, I think this is a case where if you were already considering trading in your car for something that requires fewer trips to the gas station, there’s never been a better time.

I’ve said it before, but here it is again: even if you don’t agree with a new law, if it makes sense for you to save some money under it, you might as well take advantage of it.

How the ‘cash-for-clunker’ plan would work,James R. Healey, USA TODAY, June 10, 2009

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