It felt good, I'll admit, to see the headline on The New York Times website last night. Apparently the $1 billion fund Congress had provided for the Cash for Clunkers program was almost exhausted. In less than a week, more than 250,000 people had traded in their old cars for newer models.

I was pleased, of course, because we were among those who rushed to a local dealership as soon as the Obama Administration finalized the rules for the program. As I wrote yesterday, we traded in a 1999 Ford Explorer that my husband had inherited for a new Chevy HHR. We qualified for a $4,500 benefit plus $165 additional for the value of the recyclable materials in the old car.

We also went from a vehicle that, at best, got 16 miles to the gallon to one that does at least 30 and perhaps even as much as 36 miles to the gallon on the highway.

In the Times story about the program, Congressman Ed Markey, an environmental hero who has been leading efforts to adopt energy and climate legislation, said participants in the Cash For Clunkers program are getting a 69 percent improvement in fuel economy, with the trade-ins being mostly sport utility vehicles, trucks and vans with over 100,000 miles, being replaced with new passenger cars.

“Cash for Clunkers may have run out of cash, but America’s consumers haven’t run out of clunkers,” Markey told the Times, adding that the program should be extended to cover 1 million vehicles, about four times the number covered so far.

In the same story, Senators Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and Susan Collins, a Republican of Maine, were quoted as saying that they will insist that any extension of the program require even high minimum fuel economy improvement and that provisions be made for lower-income buyers to trade clunkers for more efficient used cars. Those would be welcome improvements to the program.

All of this is great news for the economy and the planet. As the Cash for Clunkers program demonstrates, connecting economic progress with environmental well-being is what works. Call me crazy, but I believe that's the line of argument that will ultimately convince Congress to adopt clean energy climate legislation this fall.