Carbon taxes driving Irish car owners off the road
Posted on Tuesday, January 18, 2011 at 06:28 PM
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You can keep your climate change bill and all the extra costs associated with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. The climate's changing and it's a calamity. Well, count me as a skeptic.
I'm not really a climate change skeptic, but I am a skeptic that it will be a calamity. I'm skeptical that getting rid of cars, planes, cows, washing machines, etc. is actually going to be for our betterment.
The climate has always changed. People adapt. That's what we - the human race - have always done.
Back when Newgrange was built in County Meath - 5,000 years ago - Ireland was warmer than it is today. The average Irish person today is pretty fair-skinned, but if we have to endure summer temperatures in the 80s as 'we' did when Newgrange was built, we'll adapt. Same goes if we get colder winters.
I'm a lot more worried about the price of gasoline (petrol) in Ireland today than I am about what the climate will be 2111. You want to say I'm selfish or stupid, I don't care. I'll adapt to your hot temper or cold stare too.
As you know, gas prices have been climbing steadily. I was in America for a 12 days after Christmas. I paid around $3.25 per gallon in upstate New York, which is by no means cheap. However, it doesn't come close to the price we're paying for gas here in Ireland.
At the current exchange rate a gallon of gas here is around $7.25 (€1.44/l). That's up from around $4.93 per gallon (€0.98/l) on this date two years ago.
Obviously, a big chunk of that increase is due to the huge rise in oil prices over that period. However, in Ireland only about a third of the price of a gallon of gas is accounted for by the price of oil. The rest is tax, and the taxes the Irish government levies on gasoline have also been rising steadily.
Over the past 18 months the government has added 18c in tax to the price of each liter of gasoline. That's nearly an extra $1 per gallon in taxes. There would be uproar in America if the government imposed such a tax on a gallon of gas at a time of skyrocketing oil prices.
Here, however, drivers have simply taken it because we're all aware that the government is bankrupt and taxes are rapidly being raised to try to close the budget gap. Nobody's happy about it, but we're grumbling and putting up with it.
That doesn't apply to the government's proposed climate change bill, however. This is a pet project of the government's minority party, the Greens. Not only is the government going to propose meeting the EU's ridiculous carbon emissions targets, but thanks to the Green Party's influence we're going to have the tightest emissions goals in the EU. We'll go far beyond what the EU demands of us!
You don't have to be a genius to work out that this is going to mean more tax on gas. A lot more tax. Money taken out of the pockets of Irish drivers to provide essentially zero benefit to anyone in Ireland. It should never happen - especially in the current climate.
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TheYank | Jan 24, 2011, 11:29 AM EST
Towngate,
If you've been here you know that Irish roads are never very straight. Two towns 2 miles apart seem to be 7 miles by road.
If you've been here you know that Irish roads are never very straight. Two towns 2 miles apart seem to be 7 miles by road.
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Towngate | Jan 23, 2011, 03:48 AM EST
IRELAND will always be green - so long as we have the kind of clowns we have in the Dail and the even greener sheep who put them there!.......Btw:..15K a year!? - in Ireland!? .... where are they going!?
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maloney | Jan 21, 2011, 07:19 PM EST
Isn't progressive liberal green save the whales a wonderful thing to see & live under. Under is where they intend for you to be.
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TheYank | Jan 21, 2011, 07:54 AM EST
Ajreaper,
It ain't easy paying such prices, but the average Joe has no choice. I think the average Irish driver puts in about 13-15K miles each year. Probably comparable to the average American.
Worse, however, is that those who are most pinned to their collar by the economic downturn are people who bought houses in distant suburbs. Those houses are worth nowhere near what they paid for them, so they can't move out. Yet, driving the long distances to work is now much more expensive than it was when they moved 40 miles from Dublin or whatever.
It's a disaster.
And, yes, I'm sure our emissions are WAY down because the level of economic activity is way down. We don't need the climate change bill - the bankers and government have sorted the problem.
It ain't easy paying such prices, but the average Joe has no choice. I think the average Irish driver puts in about 13-15K miles each year. Probably comparable to the average American.
Worse, however, is that those who are most pinned to their collar by the economic downturn are people who bought houses in distant suburbs. Those houses are worth nowhere near what they paid for them, so they can't move out. Yet, driving the long distances to work is now much more expensive than it was when they moved 40 miles from Dublin or whatever.
It's a disaster.
And, yes, I'm sure our emissions are WAY down because the level of economic activity is way down. We don't need the climate change bill - the bankers and government have sorted the problem.
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Ajreaper | Jan 19, 2011, 01:26 PM EST
Yank, honestly how can the average Joe afford to drive as it is? Certainly very few people have the commute that many Americans have on a daily basis. When the price to fill the tank goes up, either through additional taxes or the rising cost of crude, it has a ripple effect across the board as so many good are delivered by truck or service providers who must come to you- they all pass along the increased cost of business to the consumer. I cannot see how Irelands economy can support such a tax increase- good Lord less folks are driving and traveling now because they cannot afford to do so, that ought to help out with climate change a bit ;)
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