A previous generation dealt with the London Smog by switching from a dirty fossil fuel, coal, to a relatively clean-burning one, natural gas. In the last decade the country has gone the other way with a huge switch from petrol to diesel vehicles, largely sponsored by government taxation policy. A few thousand more electric vehicles is to be welcomed but trivial when compared to the million new diesel vehicles that we buy each year. Tens of thousands of lives and many billions of pounds in NHS costs could be saved by simply reverting back to petrol. Madness? Seems to have convinced the Americans and Japanese and I note that the Germans have just banned five year and older diesel vehicles from their capital. But what would these three nations know about cars? Also, electricity is still relatively unpopular as a source of home heating. This has nothing to do with range anxiety or battery life and everything to do with basic economics. Were the British motorists to stop providing the Treasury with billions of pounds of fuel duty by driving electric cars an alternative tax would have to found. Big-brother cameras for road user charges anyone? I know how enthusiastic I am about a huge new government IT project but perhaps we should ask Edward Snowden.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 14:11:59 +0000
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