Andrew English's column

The raft of environmental green taxes are all stick and no carrot

By Andrew English

9th December 2006

Richmond upon Thames got the first strike in, but Gordon's is second and miles ahead of David's or Ken's. What am I on about? So called 'environmental taxes' on gas-guzzling vehicles, that's what. Or, as the FT put it last week: 'Brown to hit 4x4s', referring to the Chancellor's pre-Budget report which increases the top rate of Vehicle Excise Duty for cars producing the most carbon dioxide in an attempt to reduce the effects of climate change.


	It's nice so many politicians have our best interests at heart; of course, the environmental groups have crept out of the darkness like Gollum from Lord Of The Rings

Yeah, right. Strange that there's no word as to precisely what these new 'green taxes' will do for our environment, but as everyone else - including Conservative leader David Cameron and London mayor Ken Livingstone - is queuing up to force through their own green taxes and surcharges, Mr Brown didn't want to be seen to be wearing last season's hemline. It's nice so many politicians have our best interests at heart; of course, the environmental groups have crept out of the darkness like Gollum from Lord Of The Rings: "Nasty motorists, we hates them. But green taxes, yesss, my precious, we wants them..."

I don't want to seem contrary, but this is all stick and no carrot. In every survey I've read, motorists would rather have their family catapulted into space and be forced to eat boiled tripe than give up their motors. So shouldn't we be dangling a few juicy incentives in front of them as well as those penalties? What about using gas-guzzler taxes to subsidise environmental technologies and alternative fuels? Bioethanol has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 75 per cent, yet you can't buy it within 70 miles of London and only Morrisons supermarket sells it. This means makers are reluctant to offer cars that can burn it, meaning there are only two suitable models on sale, from Saab and Ford. Clearly this fuel needs a kickstart, so how about the Treasury uses its green windfall to offer incentives to convert?

Don't hold your breath. Well, not yet anyway - but you will need to when walking around parts of London. The air is thick with diesel smoke, for example, as buses queue to get into Victoria Coach Station. Ken Livingstone's Transport for London is spending £500million-plus a year on buses, bus lanes and bus garages, yet it still allows stinky diesels which are implicated in about 9,000 deaths a year in the UK. How about TfL promotes a cleaner, compressed natural gas fuel by offering incentives to operators, just like authorities do in Pakistan, Argentina, India and Italy? Again, don't hold your breath.

And what of hydrogen, the long-term fuel of the future? Next year, BMW plans to bring five exam-ples of its liquid hydrogen-fuelled 7-Series to the UK, yet there is nowhere to fill them up. Not one garage stocks the fuel, and the only gaseous hydrogen station, BP's facility in Hornchurch, Essex, will almost certainly close when the DaimlerChrysler Citaro buses which fill up there leave Britain. That also rather stymies the prospect of Honda importing its FCX Concept when it goes on sale in 2008. Sure, the Chancellor has reduced the tax rate on bio fuels, but no one trusts him to keep it that way. In 2000, he did the same for liquid petroleum gas, but this year he raised tax by two-thirds, stopping the LPG industry in its tracks. When you next hear 'green tax', simply remember it's just another tax; a punitive, regressive one which hits poor folk harder than the rich. And there's very little that is green about it.

Andrew English is motoring correspondent for the Daily Telegraph

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Andrew English's column

The raft of environmental green taxes are all stick and no carrot

By Andrew English

9th December 2006

More ANDREW ENGLISH'S COLUMN articles

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