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Cuts and Freezes won't help Floods and Wheezes

Friends of the Earth Cymru have expressed concern at the cuts in fuel duties announced in today's budget. The cuts and freezes will not encourage fuel efficiency or road traffic reduction in the transport sector. Further traffic growth is likely to increase climate change emissions and neutralise the air pollution benefits on low sulphur petrol and diesel. Other social and economic benefits of less lorries and cars, such as safer roads, less noise and road damage and reduced congestion will also be lost. The revenues raised by motoring taxes do not cover the overall costs that motoring causes and today's budget steers in the opposite direction to making the polluter pay (1). An opportunity has been lost on the transport and environmental front.

Neil Crumpton, transport spokesperson said:
"The Eurovignette road toll on foreign lorries and the £100 m restructuring package was all that was needed to resolve the valid concerns of the haulage industry. So, the cuts in haulage duties equivalent to 8 pence per litre will be very damaging to environmental efficiency and very bad news for railfreight and coastal shipping development and to everyone who wants to see less lorries on the roads."

The Chancellor also lost a major opportunity to push forward on encouraging fuel efficiency by reducing private motoring costs and preferring increased OPEC oil production to further reduce pump prices. If oil prices did fall significantly the duty freeze would prevent the restarting of the escalator which is a mechanism to send out beneficial price signals.

Neil Crumpton continued:
"The cuts and freezes in motoring costs for cars will also counteract the price signals needed to encourage the purchase of fuel efficient models at precisely the time when the public is showing growing concern about global warming. Rather than call on OPEC to increase world oil production the Government would do well to meet with the green movement as well as the farmer and haulier lobbies from now on."

Notes

1) Estimates of total motoring revenue £23-£33 billion, estimates of overall costs £45 billion to much more (overall costs = air pollution on health, hospital costs of road injuries, noise, air/water/ground pollution on buildings crops and ecology, road maintenance, policing, lighting and climate change).