Protests spread across Europe over fuel prices
Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is green government. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.If you want to see what fuel woes could look like in a few year, you could look at Europe today.
Wednesday saw violent police clashes in Paris and truck protests in Bulgaria. A thousand angry British trucks are driving into London on Tuesday to clog traffic in a follow-up to a smaller 65-truck protest last month.
All this unrest is in response to soaring fuel prices across the continent. The cost of diesel fuel in France has doubled since November. Across Europe, gasoline costs for drivers are more than double what an American pays to fill up.
European governments have produced a lot of new environmentally protective programs and rules - everything from congestion charges to bike rentals to fuel taxes. Those fuel taxes, added to already soaring fuel costs, have angered a lot of truckers, commuters, and every day citizens (even non-drivers feel the sting with rising shipping costs in food and consumers goods). Rising fuel prices also hit inflation figures and there are concerns that economic growth is at risk.
The protests are, in part, aimed at asking governments for help. The French fishing unions want $480 million in a rescue plan. A lot of groups, including those British truckers, are looking for tax relief, something that governments are very reluctant to do. Besides needing to pay for environmental programs, most governments don't like stopping tax revenues. There is another reason that cutting so called eco-taxes could be a bad idea (listen up gas tax holiday fans); by lowering the cost of fuel, demand goes up which could be followed by even higher prices.
Citizens are blaming governments. Governments are blaming OPEC. British PM Gordon Brown calls the power held by the super rich cartel a "scandal" and has asked the EU and G8 to do something about them. Maybe he's right - they do control a super-villain sized 40% of oil.
Okay, the United States isn't there just yet (especially in the eco-tax department), but fuel prices are still going up, oil supplies are not, and governments ain't that gun-ho about reducing power and fuel consumption. Whatever happens, we should probably be paying attention to what's going on across the pond.
If this issue gets your nerd juices flowing, pick up End of Oil, the informative book that gives a lot of clear insight into the energy industry. Plus, you can freak out your friends with scary stats about the oil industry.
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