UK Government Petition to lower fuel prices

[Tony Scharf]

Over stateside, the price of gas has been climbing (though
historicaly, we have always enjoyed cheaper fuel).  Its causing all
sorts of ruckus, political and social.  one interesting thing I have
noted is that car manufacturers are, for the first time, touting the
fuel efficiency of their vehicles and trying to 'one up' each other on
that spec.  They are trimming back production of big trucks and SUV's
in favor of smaller, lighter and more efficient vehicles.

As far as public trans goes, every city/region in the states has its
own transportation authority of one flavor or another.  The system in
NYC is pretty amazing - to the point where owning a car makes little
sense if you live in the city.  Chicago is, unfortunately, not so nice
but its very workable.

For myself, Angela and I moved last November to a spot where I walk 3
blocks to a metra commuter train, and she works from home.  we somehow
miraculously dodged the fuel bullet thats hitting everyone here pretty
hard.

Tony

On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 8:24 AM, Martin Naef <mnaef at navisto.ch> wrote:
> Paul,
>
> paul.maddox.mail-list at synth.net wrote:
>>> Supposing this was true, it's still not a good idea to pollute our
>>> ecosystem by burning all the fossil fuels.
>>
>> You'd better stop using all the power in your house then.
>
> You're turning this into a black-and-white issue. First of all,
> different forms and uses of energy are taxed at different rates. I don't
> know the UK system well enough, but the oil used to heat houses in
> Switzerland is a lot cheaper than the diesel sold at the petrol station,
> even though it's the same thing. Again, agriculture gets the diesel for
> their machines at another, different rate.
>
> It's a way of steering things: Driving with your own car is essentially
> a luxury with significant bad side effects, whereas heating your house
> is a necessity - hence the different taxation. Although, a lot of
> British houses could be made more energy efficient, the incentive for
> which again increases with high energy prices.
>
> Now if you ask the government to reduce taxation on petrol to offset the
> recent hike caused by speculation, you're a) supporting a non-efficient
> use of resources, b) make the oil companies even happier because people
> keep buying their overpriced product at the same rate, and c) don't even
> attack the source of the price hike which is market speculation and a
> monopolistic behaviour of the providers.
>
>> So, if you're happy for the cost petrol to increase, you should also be
>> prepaired to pay extra for *everything* you don't grow/make yourself.
>
> Yes, but you pay a lot more extra for those things that rely heavily on
> petrol, whereas other, more "eco-friendly" products don't get the same
> hit. And if the price increased is caused by taxation, the money coming
> in can be used to reduce other taxes.
>
> Bye
> Martin
>
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