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Dump the pump: a waste of energy
31 July 2000
Here are five reasons why the Dump the Pump Campaign should be ignored by anyone who cares about the environment:
1. Fuel tax rises are an essential part of policy to tackle climate change, the gravest environmental threat facing the world. Road transport is the second fastest growing British source of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main climate change gas
2. Car drivers don't pay the full cost of their driving. Road transport costs the environment£42 billion a year. Tax raised from road transport totals £23 billion a year [1]
3. Government figures show that the cost of motoring has not changed in real terms (after inflation) in the last 25 years. But train fares have gone up by 53% and bus fares by 87% [2]
4. Cheaper fuel would do nothing to tackle congestion, nor will it help cut air pollution and accidents. The Government estimates that up to 24,000 people die prematurely every year from air pollution, much of it caused by road traffic
5. According to Government figures, 59% of Britain's poorest households do not own a car, including 42% of the poorest households in rural areas.
Sources
1. HM Treasury
2. DETR: Quality of Life Counts - Indicators for a Strategy for Sustainable Development for the United Kingdom: A Baseline Assessment (1999)
Commenting, FOE Transport Campaigner Tony Bosworth said:
“ The Dump the Pump campaign will do nothing to help rural communities, poorer households or the environment. It is a cynical stunt by the most backward bits of the roads lobby, prodded by populist papers and opportunist Tory politicians - who must be hoping that the public have forgotten that their Party introduced the Fuel Price Escalator in the first place. Their campaign is a great waste of energy. They want us to try to drive around all day without putting any petrol in our tanks - a tactic doomed to disaster even in the short run. We say: let's all simply leave our cars in the garage instead and walk, cycle or get the bus.”
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jul 2008
