Posted on 08/13/2019 1:51:33 AM PDT by Cronos
Vehicle fuel taxes should rise to combat the air pollution crisis in the UK, with an extra charge on diesel, according to the conservative thinktank Bright Blue.
A report calls for VAT to be abolished on electric cars and for citizens to be able to report idling vehicles and receive a share of fines levied.
Most urban areas in the UK register illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution, which mainly comes from vehicles. But while Britain’s particulate levels are legal, they are above World Health Organization guidelines, which Bright Blue said should be the targets adopted by the UK. Polling for the thinktank showed 70% of people in the UK were concerned about the health impact of air pollution and wanted government action.
Dirty air causes 40,000 early deaths every year in the UK, and in 2016 a committee of MPs called the problem a “public health emergency”. The damage to lungs and hearts is well established but the latest research shows air pollution may be damaging every organ and virtually every cell in the body.
...Ryan Shorthouse, the chief executive of Bright Blue, said: “The evidence of the scale and impact of air pollution is growing and alarming. As the UK leaves the EU, there is a need and an opportunity to improve legislation, policies and accountability around air quality. Despite the rhetoric from the government, enough is not being done to tackle NO2.”
Shorthouse said: “We are a pro-market thinktank, but sometimes there are inefficiencies and inequities that arise in markets and therefore good government regulation and spending is needed. It is a conservative thing to tax things that have negative effects on people and reduce the tax burden on things that are desirable.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Source please. Just because you claim it, doesn't make it so, Guardian.
Knock yourselves out, UK. Just don’t import that kind of crap over here. Gasoline prices will take care of themselves. They go up, they go down.
“””Vehicle fuel taxes should rise to combat the air pollution crisis in the UK, with an extra charge on diesel, according to the conservative thinktank Bright Blue. A report calls for VAT to be abolished on electric cars”””
The current VAT in Britain (aka Sales Tax in USA) is 21%.
If electric cars are so honky-dory, then why do the electric car prices need to be subsidized?
Let the market and not crony capitalists decide what mix of cars should be on the roads.
Duct tape politicians that call for raising taxes!
In addition, the UK and most other European countries impose an ANNUAL carbon tax on “fossil fuel” powered vehicles based on CO2 grams/mile ratings.
https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-rate-tables
They need the money to support all the 3rd world migrants that are pouring in.
This is not a conservative thinktank...it is a socialist thinktank masquerading for media consumption.
Some truth in this, but it can easily turn into a carbon tax in disguise. Carbon is not pollution, no matter what the junk science maintains. Attention economists: we do not need market-based solutions to nonexistent problems.
NO2 is introduced into the environment by natural causes, including entry from the stratosphere, bacterial respiration, volcanos, and lightning. These sources make NO2 a trace gas in the atmosphere of Earth, where it plays a role in absorbing sunlight and regulating the chemistry of the troposphere, especially in determining ozone concentrations.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_dioxide
You ask them about auto emission standards. If they sit there like jelly on a bun, you got em....they're redder than a wino's eyeballs.
Crony Communists
Socialists are called conservative in England.
Being a conservative think tank in the UK is sort of like being the best steakhouse in India.
Demonstrates the kinds of things that stand for “Conservatism” in the U.K.
When your government fears you it will weaken you either with taxes or more violent means, like making bricks without straw.
“Vehicle fuel taxes should rise to combat the air pollution crisis in the UK, with an extra charge on diesel, according to the conservative thinktank Bright Blue. “
With ‘conservative thinktanks’ like this, I’d hate to see what ‘liberal thinktanks’ are saying.
Really UK, is that the best you can come up with?
Look like a bunch of young kids out to save the world. Right. Good Luck!!
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