Porsche Threatens Suit Agains 'Polluter Pays' Congestion Tax Hike
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 02.20.08
The Guardian reports that car-maker Porsche is in a snit and threatening a suit against a London mayor over a proposed law to boost the congestion tax for polluting vehicles each time they drive into London.
Porsche said the new levy of 25 pounds (U.S. $48.76) up from 8 pounds is "unfair and disproportionate" - but from a TreeHugger standpoint, what a great way to get car manufacturers to move faster, a lot faster, on introduction of low or no-CO2 emitting vehicles. Porsche said the new tax will do very little to lower CO2 emissions, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone agreed the measure would lead to only a "modest" reduction, but would provide 30 to 50 million pounds for environmentally friendly transport schemes such as walking and biking. Livingstone is facing a re-election campaign soon, and one of his conservative opponents said the hike turns the congestion tax into a CO2 tax - which seems exactly appropriate if we want to tax 'bads' instead of 'goods' in pursuit of a sustainable world.
Exactly...this won't hardly make a change, it's just a huge revenue scheme for the government.
Waaah I'm Porsche and our fast but sexy cars don't get good mileage and our big wigs can't drive them in cramped London.
Wake up. Slim em down! Even the 911 tips in at like 3800lbs! If they lost 800lbs they could be just as fast but use smaller engines and get better mileage. Easy equation.
Would any of the older, lighter porsche's get past this new charge? I would have thought the city boys could afford this anyway :)
Hmm, interesting points. Maybe the government should lend Porche a hand to make cars greener by donating some funds. Funds from the 'polluter pays' tax and funds that MUST be used in research to greener cars of course :-) That way Porche can solve their problem and that way something will be really done. We have to start thinking "solutions" here, not "who will pay?". It's nearly time and my kids are entitled to a better world too!
Perhaps Porsche should appeal on medical grounds.... think of the psychological angst caused to all those insecure males that need to compensate for shortcoming in, ahem, other areas.
I suppose Tesla should rush to open up a sales office. This sort of congestion charge really could open up the market for high end electrics. As Tesla has shown, you can have your green cake and eat it too, if you've got the money.
I would hope the high revenue generated from such a tax would result in low/zero emission public transportation. That would at least make sense. Puts the car companies out a lot of money, but it's the direction all cities should be going in anyway.
The truth about the congestion tax:
It will make little or no difference in the amout of co2. It is just another excuse for government to raise revenue and spend it on some stupid program that doesn't make a difference. Symbolism over substance.
What is going to happen is businesses will move out of the city into the country. With impunative taxes leveyed on businesses and employee's coming to work.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. There are alway unintended consequences when government gets involved in raising more revenue through more taxes. What is going to happen is people will move out of the citys to get away from the tax. People want to drive cars because it is conveinient and saves time. Businesses, home owners, employee's will leave the city in droves! People who own property in the downtown area won't be able to rent out business space or apartments, and tax revenue from downtown will tank! The value of these apartments and business space will plunge and the owners won't be able to sell.
If this happens will treehugger report it as a big flop??? I doubt it!