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Tuesday, November 17, 2020

GWPF Newsletter: UK plans to charge motorists for every mile they drive in switch to electric cars

 





Petrol and diesel vehicle ban to cause £40 billion black hole

In this newsletter:

1) UK plans to charge motorists for every mile they drive to fill £40billion tax hole left by the switch to electric cars
Daily Mail, 16 November 2020
 
2) UK Treasury pushing back against Boris’s costly green agenda
The Observer, 15 November 2020


3) Boris Johnson overrules Rishi Sunak on risky, green bonds as fiancee Carrie Symonds supports them
Mail on Sunday, 8 November 2020
 
4) British drivers could soon be charged for every mile they travel in 'poll tax on wheels'
Daily Express, 16 November 2020
 
5) Tesla Supercharging now more expensive than petrol refuelling
Which Car, 13 November 2020 
 
6) Nearly half of British public say they will never buy an electric car over charging fees 
The Daily Telegraph, 8 September 2020
  
7) Dan Hodges: If the future is now all about wind farms, trans rights and wokery, Boris Johnson is doomed
Mail on Sunday, 15 November 2020
 
8) And finally: France relights coal power plants to keep the lights on
GWPF & Europe1 News, 13 November 2020

Full details:

1) UK plans to charge motorists for every mile they drive to fill £40billion tax hole left by the switch to electric cars
Daily Mail, 16 November 2020

Petrol and diesel vehicle ban to cause £40 billion black hole
 
 
A similar plan was shelved by Labour ministers in 2007 amid fears drivers would be billed up to £1.50 a mile.
 
Rishi Sunak is considering plans to charge motorists for every mile they drive on Britain’s roads to fill a £40billion tax hole left by a push to electric cars, according to reports.

The Chancellor is reportedly ‘very interested’ in the idea of a national road pricing scheme – which would steer motorists into a new ‘pay-as-you-drive’ type system.

Road pricing in England is limited to schemes such as the M6 Toll in the Midlands, the Dartford crossing on the M25, London’s Congestion Zone and a handful of small tunnels and bridges.

But a national scheme is now being considered amid fears a switch to electric vehicles will leave a massive tax shortfall from the loss of key revenue raisers such as Fuel Duty and Vehicle Excise Duty, according to the Times. […]

It comes amid reports Boris Johnson wants to accelerate his green plans – including bringing forward a ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars to 2030.

A similar plan was shelved by Labour ministers in 2007 amid fears drivers would be billed up to £1.50 a mile.

A petition was signed by 1.8million motorists opposing the idea.

Full story (£)
 
2) UK Treasury pushing back against Boris’s costly green agenda
The Observer, 15 November 2020
 
Boris Johnson’s much vaunted 10-point plan to ‘build back green’ is in doubt as government coffers face unprecedented pressure.
 
 
Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak in Downing Street. The Treasury is said to be pushing back against the prime minister’s green agenda. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
 
Boris Johnson’s plans to relaunch his premiership with a blitz of announcements on combating climate change and the creation of tens of thousands of new green jobs are meeting stiff resistance from the cash-strapped Treasury, the Observer has been told.

Senior figures in Whitehall and advisers to the government on environmental issues say negotiations on the content of a major environmental speech by the prime minister are still ongoing between No 10, the Treasury and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy with just days to go before Johnson delivers the keynote address.

The speech, containing a 10-point plan, has already been repeatedly delayed as government attention has been focused on the fight against Covid-19 and multibillion-pound measures by the Treasury to keep the economy and business afloat during the resulting economic crisis. On Thursday, however, the prime minister made clear his determination to press ahead with the speech, tweeting that it would be of historic importance and was imminent.

He said: “We’re one year out from hosting @COP26 in Glasgow. There is no time to waste and we have to act now to take bold action in the fight against climate change. I’m looking forward to shortly setting out my 10-point plan to create thousands of green jobs in the UK.” […]

But many of these pledges involve long-term financial commitments of funding and subsidy which the Treasury is reluctant to make until the extent of the bills from the Covid crisis are better known.

“The Treasury is fighting back hard against a lot of the green plans and there is a battle going on with No 10,” said a source close to the talks.
 
“The PM wants to get on with it, with plans for the long term, but he is meeting a lot of resistance. You would expect that from the Treasury but with Covid it is of another order.” 

Full story
 
see also
 
** GWPF welcomes delay to UK energy white paper
 
** The astronomical costs of decarbonising UK housing (pdf)
 
3) Boris Johnson overrules Rishi Sunak on risky, green bonds as fiancee Carrie Symonds supports them
Mail on Sunday, 8 November 2020

Boris Johnson has won a battle with Chancellor Rishi Sunak to fund the ‘green’ projects beloved of fiancee Carrie Symonds despite opposition from a sceptical Treasury.
 
 
Carrie Symonds, left, has convinced Boris Johnson about the need for green bonds
 
The Prime Minister’s relationship with Ms Symonds, a passionate environmentalist, has been credited with influencing his declarations about ‘building a green recovery’ after the Covid pandemic by striking agreements on cutting carbon emissions and boosting renewable technologies.

Now, as the UK prepares to hold the presidency of both the G7 and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) next year, Mr Johnson has overcome Treasury opposition to the introduction of ‘green bonds’, which act like mortgages for businesses that want to pursue environmentally friendly projects.

The Government has faced significant criticism over preparations for the summit, with former COP President Claire Perry O’Neill attacking Mr Johnson for a ‘failure of global vision and leadership’.
 
Mr Johnson – whose father Stanley is also a committed environmentalist – used his speech to the Tory Party conference to back a clean energy revolution. Ms Symonds, who is on maternity leave from her job as an adviser at Oceana working to support the Bloomberg Foundation’s Vibrant Oceans Initiative, wears ethical clothing labels and campaigns on issues such as stopping the cull of badgers.
 
A source said: ‘Rishi’s Treasury is typically cool on issues such as green bonds, regarding them as a bit “gimmicky”, but Boris is less sceptical, and thinks that the “optics” would be good for COP26.’
 
The Treasury is understood to fear that transforming the goals of central banks risks damaging their credibility and could fuel a dangerous green asset bubble. 
 
Full story
 
4) British drivers could soon be charged for every mile they travel in 'poll tax on wheels'
Daily Express, 16 November 2020

ROAD charging schemes which could see road users charged for every mile they drive on UK roads would be a ‘poll tax on wheels', according to AA President Edmund King.

Mr King has urged the government to come up with a “more imaginative solution” as road pricing changes have already been considered “every five years”. They have called upon the government to introduce a “road mile” policy which would allow drivers a certain amount of free road use before charges were applied.

The system would also look at where a driver lives and could offer extra free miles where a motorist is cut off such as in rural areas.

Mr King joked that even naming UK motorways after football teams would be a “more popular solution” than introducing any mileage-based programme.
 
He said: “While the push toward electric vehicles is good for the environment, it is not good for the Exchequer.
 
“The Government can’t afford to lose £40bn from fuel duty and car tax when the electric revolution arrives.

“It is always assumed that road pricing would be the solution but that has been raised every five years since 1964 and is still perceived by most as a ‘poll tax on wheels’.
 
“We need a more imaginative solution and have proposed ‘Road Miles’ whereby every driver gets 3000 free miles, with one third more for those in rural areas, and then a small charge thereafter."
 
“Combined with commercialising the roads with an adopt a highway scheme with naming rights such as the Minecraft M1, Manchester Utd M6 or Adidas A1, this should prove a more popular solution.”
 
Chancellor Rishi Suank is understood to be “very interested” in the idea of a national mileage charging scheme to fill a £40billion hole created by electric cars.
 
Full story
 
5) Tesla Supercharging now more expensive than petrol refuelling
Which Car, 13 November 2020 

Tesla's "less than the cost of petrol" claim no longer cuts the mustard



Teslas are now more expensive to recharge than it is to fuel an equivalent petrol-powered car – at least if you’re using the Tesla Supercharger network.
 
A recent price increase to use the fast-charging Tesla Superchargers and incorrect fuel figures on the Tesla website mean claims that recharging using a Supercharger is “less than the cost of petrol” are incorrect.

According to Tesla the cost of charging a Tesla Model 3 is $7 per 100km compared with $12 for a rival petrol car.

Those estimates include at least three incorrect figures: how much electricity a Tesla Model 3 uses, the cost of electricity at a Tesla Supercharger and the price of petrol.

The recent increase in the Supercharger cost to 52 cents per kilowatt-hour is well up on the 42c/kWh on the Tesla website.

That means recharging even the most efficient Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus – which consumes 18.8kWh/100km, according to figures supplied to the government – would cost $9.78 per 100km using a Supercharger.

Consuming a claimed average of 5.8 litres per 100km – well below the 7.0L/100km figure used by the Tesla website – the BMW is 18 per cent cheaper to fuel than a Tesla is to recharge.
 
Full story
 
6) Nearly half of British public say they will never buy an electric car over charging fees 
The Daily Telegraph, 8 September 2020 
 
Nearly half of the UK public say they will never buy an electric car because of a lack of charging points, according to a new survey. 
 
The cost of EVs is the other major reason why 46 per cent of people say they would not buy one in the future, the survey by Ford Motors has found. 
 
The findings highlight the challenge the Government faces as it prepares to bring forward the deadline to phase out new petrol and diesel vehicles, including plug-in hybrid models. 
 
Transport Minister Grant Shapps has suggested the date will be brought forward to 2032, but it is under pressure to make it as early as 2030. 

EVs currently account for just 5 per cent of new cars, but sales doubled in August even as the overall market fell. 
 
More than half of respondents to the Ford survey said they were put off buying an EV because of the price. Most EVs are significantly more expensive than similar petrol or diesel models, even with Government subsidies, with the cheapest starting from around £17,000.
 
Full story (£)
 
7) Dan Hodges: If the future is now all about wind farms, trans rights and wokery, Boris Johnson is doomed
Mail on Sunday, 15 November 2020
 
 The Dom Cummings era is over,’ the Minister told me. ‘But if we’re going to replace it with the Carrie Symonds era, we’re f*****. The environment. Transgender rights. If that’s what we’re going to be about, our coalition is going to fall apart. It’s not what our voters want to hear. We’re going to lose a lot of seats.’


 
To people watching from beyond the Plexiglass screen encasing Britain’s political class, the events of the past few days looked like a bad reality TV show. In fact, it’s looked like that to those on the inside. ‘I feel as if I’ve been watching an episode of Jeremy Kyle,’ one distraught Tory MP complained to me.
 
But it’s way more serious than that. The week-long orgy of infighting that resulted in the Prime Minister’s inner circle defenestrating itself may have appeared compelling but superficial – but in reality, British politics has just been turned on its head.
 
The Brexiteers who have controlled the political agenda since 2016 have been unceremoniously evicted from Downing Street. The strategy that brought Boris his stunning 80-seat majority less than 12 months ago has been ditched. In short, a spectacular coup has been mounted at the heart of Government – one led not by Cabinet Ministers or MPs, but by the Prime Minister’s own partner. [...]
  
Wind farms. Trans rights. Animal welfare. Does anybody seriously thinks these are the issues that drive Johnson?
 
More importantly, does anyone seriously think these are the issues that drive the millions of people who tore down Labour’s ‘Red Wall’ to cross over to the Conservative Party for the first time in their lives? ‘Carrie’s hug- a-fish agenda won’t cut it,’ said a worried Minister.
 
This morning there is a vacuum at the heart of Government. And it cannot be filled by the Prime Minister’s fiancee. It can only be filled by the Prime Minister himself. As one Cabinet Minister explained: ‘The problem is, Dom and Lee could be sacked, but Carrie can’t. So if we get to the point people think she has to go, the only thing we can do is get rid of Boris himself.’
 
The Cummings era is over. Boris is damaged. Many believe he won’t survive the era of Carrie Symonds.
 
8) And finally: France relights coal power plants to keep the lights on
GWPF & Europe1 News, 13 November 2020

Since September, France has relighted four coal-fired power plants to offset the shutdown of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant and the lack of wind.







The French government has compensated EDF with 377 million euros when it forces it to close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. Now France has to restart coal plants to compensate for the loss in electricity. An absurd situation because everyone loses in this story.
 
This is the epilogue of a long story: the government will pay 377 million euros to compensate EDF for the closure of the two reactors at the Fessenheim nuclear power plant. The National Assembly will debate an amending government budget on Tuesday, including compensation for EDF for the forced closure of Fessenheim.
 
Since September, France has relighted four coal-fired power stations with high CO2 emissions to partially offset the shutdown at Fessenheim and the lack of wind for the wind turbines. Since September EDF has also had to occasionally import gas and coal-generated electricity from Germany at a very high cost.
 
Everyone loses
 
EDF loses because the compensation paid to it is comparatively low given that the Fessenheim reactors could still have been running until 2041 and that its power plants were both amortised and in perfect working order.

The government’s budget, and therefore the taxpayer, obviously loses too and at a time, in the midst of a crisis, when we would do better to use this millions elsewhere.

Our foreign trade is losing because we import coal and gas that we could have avoided burning in our power stations.
 
And the planet is losing because we emit more CO2. All this for purely political, ideological reasons. And this absurd situation is not about to end since France’s multi-year energy law demands the closure of 14 other nuclear reactors in coming years, 14 reactors that are amortised and in working order.
 
These nuclear reactors would have been even more useful in the future due to the growth of renewable energy – because the more renewables there are, the more we need reliable production of electricity which does not depend on weather conditions, on intermittent wind or sun.

Full story (in French)

The London-based Global Warming Policy Forum is a world leading think tank on global warming policy issues. The GWPF newsletter is prepared by Director Dr Benny Peiser - for more information, please visit the website at www.thegwpf.com.

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