Let’s tax fuel to reduce fuel poverty!
THERE really are loons out there. Here’s a case in point. The argument is that energy is getting more expensive. This puts some people into “fuel poverty” where they are spending more than 10% of their incomes on fuel. Hmm.
So, what might we do to address this situation? Hey, why don’t we put a tax on fuel to make it more expensive! That’ll work, right?
No, really, they are suggesting this:
In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the Energy Bill Revolution campaign says that 6million people are already classed as being in fuel poverty because they spend more than 10 per cent of their income on heating their homes.
As bills increase faster than wages, the number could hit 9million by 2016, the group warns.
It suggests using money raised from a ‘carbon tax’ to fit all houses with insulation which stops heat being lost through walls and roofs.
They really are suggesting that we should reduce the number of people in fuel poverty by increasing the price of fuel.
Part of the current increases are due to the current green environmentalist wankery anyway. So now they want to have even more to cure the problem they’ve caused.
Did something strange get into the water supply a few years back? Or the food? For an entire nation to go this mad there must be some deeper cause.
Posted: 21st, January 2013 | In: Money Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
January 21st, 2013 at 6:47 pm
Fossil fuels are a limited resource and are becoming increasing more expensive to acquire (not helped by the fact that they are traded as commodities, making city traders richer and pushing the price up further). With the BRIC countires becoming ever more industrialised, demand will remain greater than supply for the foreseeable future. We are going to have to get used to paying more for fuel/heating. My heating bill has been going up recently by approx 25% per annum and I suspect that I am not unique in this instance. I can see how that cost will impact on lower income households. Using subsidies derived from an additional fuel tax to improve household thermal efficiency is one way of dealing with the issue (better insulation, lower bills – it’s not rocket science), but I suspect the problem will get worse. Energy sources such as nuclear power will have to feature more prominently in the future.
I’m not sure how Green party/environmentalist policies are supposed to have caused a substantial part of the current increases in fuel prices. They have high-lighted the bleeding obvious – AGW is a major problem which needs dealing with urgently, and some policies have been taken up by government and funding these has been through increased taxation. However, I suspect the majority of price increases are due to supply/demand and trading. It would be interesting to compare how much each of these has influenced price. Anyone got those numbers?