Quote Originally Posted by Al Khalifah
Sorry Red, we already have massive taxes on petrol in the UK and they aren't helping to solve the problem at all. The Government just squanders the money on inefficient schemes for public transport.

Raising the price of petrol does not stop people using their cars, it just decreases their disposable income to spend on other things and rather unfairly hits the poor and rural populations - rather than the urban population.
It doesn't work if you just shift money around in general funds. I don't propose that at all. Any tax like this should be used to directly fund the sort of development incentives that we want. Right now, we don't have a substantial coordinated effort going on. If we want one, we have to fund it. This is about priming the capitalistic pump, not creating a socialist system. Capitalism works, but it needs some incentive/direction at times. You give it a carrot, it will chase it.

As for raising the price of gas...it actually does have clear long term effects. The short term cannot be changed very much--and the short term here is at least 3 to 5 years. Look at the effect of higher gas prices by taking a look at the typical U.S. auto (a huge, heavy SUV) and the average foreign auto. Low fuel costs in the U.S. have led to declining fuel efficiency. The actual fleet (per car on the road) averages are at 1973 levels last I checked. Why? The weight of the average U.S. vehicle is more now than it was in 1973. The shift has been to SUV's/light trucks that are actually heavier than the 1973 beasts. It takes time to move the average fleet statistics, and we've been moving the wrong way.