The Road to Hell?

The recent rekindling of the debate in the UK about proposed increases in vehicle excise duty or 'car tax' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/10/transport.taxandspending) is instructive. The presumed intention behind the changes is to provide a further incentive (if increases in fuel are not sufficient) for people to replace high emission cars with lower emission equivalents (I wonder what happens about vintage and veteran cars that currently don't pay VED?). The current complaints seem linked to the numbers of people likely to be faced with increases as the taxes become payable on vehicles already owned (rather than those recently purchased). Some politicians and motoring organisations claim that the changes will particularly disadvantage 'poorer folk' who may not be so capable of down-sizing their cars (of course, the 'gas guzzlers' will become cheaper). Environmental groups favour the changes. This has echos of the debate about the wisdom of providing cheap cars to the people of India and China (post of 11/01/2008). Seemingly virtually everyone aspires to membership of the 'car owning democracy' but it seems unlikely that the globe can accommodate everyone being a member of this club. Carbon dioxide is carbon dioxide, whatever the socio-economic status of the generator. The news, on the same day, that an electric sports car with the performance of a Porsche and artificial 'grunt' to generate the required noise (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/10/travelandtransport.alternativeenergy) may not be especially helpful (unless a majority of cars 'refueled' in this way, meaning that you could control pollution centrally). It may be a great little performer with zero (direct) carbon emissions but the electricity to power the vehicle is a matter of some concern (you probably need quite a lot).