In the midst of increasing inflation across the UK and an unstable economic situation across Europe, UK citizens now have to deal with higher oil prices as well as higher taxes as the government tries to keep the economy from collapsing like it did in Greece and Ireland. Taxes have increased 2.5 percent and diesel and gasoline are at near record highs which is causing outcry and some protests at oil refineries. The article also outlines how the higher oil prices have effected the sales of fuel efficient cars due to residents paying taxes on how much pollution their cars make. It points out that GDP and vehicle travel used to be very closely related but with the current economy and oil prices it is taking less vehicle travel to create the same 1pound of GDP.
3 comments:
This part about citizens paying taxes on how much pollution their cars make is very interesting - implementing the same thing in the U.S. could make a huge difference (also if we had to pay taxes on all those gas guzzlers).
This was a really interesting article- I was particularly drawn to the positive aspects of the recent increasing fuel costs in the UK. Higher gas prices have led drivers to reevaluate their driving and it has made them drive more slowly (safer) and less often (better for the environment). I also really liked the idea of taxing cars based on their emission of CO2. I agree that this should be put into place in the US. A policy like this could really have an effect on the amount of SUVs on the road. I dislike the idea of the conservatives- I don't think that trying to ensure that gas prices stay consistent is necessarily good. The situation at present and the government policy is encouraging the ownership of fuel efficient vehicles which is something we all should be moving towards in my opinion.
Looks like that there is a positive relationship between the CO2 and the taxes in this case. This would indirectly force the auto industry in UK to focus more on more fuel efficient vehicles, which would appeal better to the consumers. I suppose this is a good thing for the environment and it should be implemented in the United States as well. However, my concern is that there should be some kind of taxes on the full electric vehicles as well since they're using the electricity from coal plants or any of these plants that emit CO2.
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