Greens decry Gordon Brown
12 September 2005
The Green Party today made an appeal to the government to show realleadership and foresight in developing more sustainable transport systemsfor the twenty-first century.
Green Party Principal Speaker Keith Taylor said: "The reality is that oil isa finite resource. As it depletes, and demand grows, it will increase inprice, and that is what we are witnessing, prompted by Hurricane Katrina'seffects on US supplies.
"Gordon Brown has said that global issues need global solutions - but thesesolutions must also be sustainable. With the growing industrialisation ofChina and India, the situation is only going to get worse. To ask that Opecincrease oil production by 500,000 extra barrels a day, as he has done, isdangerously short sighted."(1)
"A responsible government would be planning now for when oil is even moreexpensive and in short supply. Industry analysts predict crude oil willdouble from its present price within the next few years. We're seeing theupset petrol pump price rises of a few pence per litre can cause, there is areal potential for huge civil disruption when peak oil predictions cometrue.
"Cutting the petrol tax is not the answer to the problem. We need todramatically reduce the oil dependency of our economy - which makes usvulnerable to periodic shocks and disruption such as this, rather thancontinue to massively subsidise motorists. Official statistics show thatbetween 1987 and 2000, although petrol and oil prices had increased by 45%,and tax and insurance payments by over 40%, the total costs of motoring inreal terms had risen by only 5.6-7.2%. 2 The same figures also reveal thatbus and coach fares increased by 18%, and rail fares by 21%, in real terms.The Green Party believes this is patently unsustainable and irresponsible.
"In the longer term, for the government not to take immediate decisive andpositive action now is a betrayal of this and future generations. We cannotafford to wait until petrol stations run out of fuel to act, or the floodscaused by global warming are at our door - because that will be too late.
"We must develop alternative and sustainable transport solutions now. Thismeans improving public transport, taking back into public control the railnetwork, and encouraging the development of low-carbon emitting transportsystems. This is the fourth fuel crisis in as many decades - how many do weneed to suffer for the government to wake up?"
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
(1)news.bbc.co.uk(2)www.greenparty.org.uk20on%20the%20future%20Jun%2004.htm
