Comments on: Let’s tax fuel to reduce fuel poverty! http://www.anorak.co.uk/345714/money/lets-tax-fuel-to-reduce-fuel-poverty.html/ Tabloid news for broadsheet readers Sat, 18 May 2013 08:03:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Bimmerman http://www.anorak.co.uk/345714/money/lets-tax-fuel-to-reduce-fuel-poverty.html/comment-page-1/#comment-476944 Bimmerman Mon, 21 Jan 2013 18:47:26 +0000 http://www.anorak.co.uk/?p=345714#comment-476944 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?

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