A big American think tank, the Brookings Institute, wants President Obama to enact a “Cash for Clunkers” program.

Drivers who turn in their polluting old cars would get a cash voucher they could use to buy new vehicles from the crippled U.S. auto industry.

And if people could pocket the cash and choose public transportation instead, that would be a good thing, too, argues Eric De Place of the Sightline Institute, a sustainability research non-profit in Seattle.

Timing is perfect, as the Brookings web site explains:

“The incoming administration needs to act quickly to stimulate our ailing economy, prevent the collapse of the auto industry and tackle climate change and oil dependence. One policy idea might simultaneously rev up the engine on all three challenges—cash for clunkers.

“Offering cash vouchers to clunker owners in exchange for their old, polluting cars is an idea that should be getting more attention. Drivers could use the vouchers toward the purchase of newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, with the old vehicles scrapped to get them off the road.

“Local variants of the cash for clunkers program are already operating in such states as California and Texas. Overseas, France just announced the adoption of a similar program as part of its stimulus package.”

Hmmm. What other country has an ailing auto industry and a need for economic stimulus? Looking for a new platform plank, Ignatieff and Layton?

De Place argues that paying people to ditch their guzzlers is a proven concept in his country. “Leading utilities already operate old-appliance buy-back programs, for example, in order to reduce wasteful and expensive electricity consumption even while giving low-income consumers a helping hand.

“That's not to say that buying new cars for people is a long-term solution to our energy, climate, and economic problems. Obviously, it's not. Indeed, such a policy could only ever be a first step. But coupled with a range of other policies -- comprehensive carbon pricing, new investments in car-light infrastructure, and large-scale green jobs programs -- a cash for clunkers program might be just the tonic we need in the short term.”

Love or hate cars, a fascinating place to track the debate over automobile use is Sightline’s Daily Score blog, where dueling wonks De Place and Clark Williams-Derry are driven to produce charts and graphs expressing the results their auto-obsessive inquiries. Among other recent posts there:

A graph shows people in the U.S. Northwest have been driving less and less for ten years, mainly in Oregon.

And a chart shows just how much people who drive more, crash more, with some related ideas for insurance reform that should interest the number crunchers at ICBC.

David Beers is editor of The Tyee.