Fuel prices
As we all know fuel prices are very high here in Britain but there's some things some of us don't know. Petrol for instance as well as diesel is 70% tax so we are paying a stupid amount of money for fuel for our vehicles and most of it is tax. Gas has to be bought in and we buy it from the Russians, they basically have a gun to our head because if we don't pay the price for gas then we cant really get it anywhere else.
Diesel specific
These days there is a lot more diesel being used than there was many years ago so the demand has increased a considerable amount. I think its firstly to do with the price of fuel and secondly most modern diesels perform as well if not better than its petrol equivalent. Diesel is cheaper to produce than petrol so is cheaper to make but we get stung with higher price than petrol, i am not sure why this is but it is what it is.Gas Specific
If we stopped buying gas from the Russians and didn't buy any more in we only have limited reserves. These reserves would last about 5 weeks which isnt long at all. Gas cant be stored for a very long time so has a short lifespan, which i think is why theres not a bigger amount stored because it needs to be used.+Fair fuel prices
Diesel is more expensive as the demand has increased so the oil companies can profiteer as well as increased tax duty on diesel iirc to counter for the increased NOX emissions until they bring that into VED tax bands in the next few years so that people with the low CO2 diesel cars can get stung on NOX emissions that diesels give out more of.
ReplyDeleteAlso the main reason we buy gas from the russians is combination of purity and price as we could obtain from other countries however transport costs are higher and the quality is lower by the time it reaches us.
Believe it or not our rather lax immigration laws dont help. Simply because we don't have enough to provide for ourselves and then of course they let in all manor of foreigners who then live off our benefits system and use it to buy a new BMW or Mercedes and pay for the fuel with their benefits (and I have seen this happen - one person I know of had a AMG merc C class on benefits).
We need to adapt the system Australia uses which is unless your born here, you don't get our benefits.
Then the demand and strain on supply would reduce, our dependency on foreign oil sources would also reduce which should in theory bring down our prices making life easier for all as well as reducing congestion on the roads as there would be a lower populous.