From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
The Government should consider cutting motorway speed limits to 64mph to reduce transport emissions and dependence on oil imports, MPs have said.
Liz Truss told the hustings that the smart motorway experiment ‘hasn’t worked’ CREDIT: Heathcliff O’Malley for The Telegraph
The measure is among many that the Commons environmental audit select committee, in its report out on Thursday about reducing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels, has said that Westminster should consider.
The report got under way shortly after the war in Ukraine and addressed both the UK’s energy independence and the net zero transition.
It said that solar panels should be installed on new developments and the Government should set an end date for oil and gas licensing.
MPs on the committee criticised a lack of plans by ministers to reduce pollution from transport, which accounts for 23 per cent of Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The committee added that the Government should consult on measures, such as those listed in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 10-point plan to cut oil use, which was drafted in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
The IEA’s plan also included the introduction of car-free Sundays in cities, working from home three days a week and alternating car access to roads depending on licence plate numbers.
“The rapid growth in electric car sales is encouraging, but it will take many years to replace petrol and diesel vehicles,” the report said.
“More must be done to improve the energy efficiency of our transport system and reduce its contribution to climate change in the meantime.”
MPs on the committee also called for a national “war effort” on energy efficiency, including potentially lowering stamp duty for homes that installed energy efficiency measures.
The committee was divided on whether the Government should continue to grant new oil and gas licenses, but acknowledged that doing so was not incompatible with the UK’s goals to reach net zero by 2050.
It said that domestic oil and gas would be necessary to power the economy through the green transition, but called for an end date for new licenses to be set by the Government “well before 2050”.
Writing for The Telegraph, below, Philip Dunne, a Tory MP and the chairman of the environmental audit committee, said: “Decisions need to be made now that will secure our energy supplies, resilient enough so that we are never again so vulnerable to the whims of brutal and autocratic regimes.”
The Commons environmental audit committee has recommended reducing the national speed limit to cut emissions CREDIT: James Fraser/Rex
I don’t remember any of this being proposed in any party’s manifesto at the last election.
And to claim, as Dunne does, that this will protect us all from Putin’s whims is utterly fraudulent. Imports of gas from Russia only amount to 6% of total imports, which could easily be replaced by new North Sea gas developments.
Oil imports from Russia are also not significant at 12%, with plenty of alternative sources around the world.
No, it is not about Putin, but climate change.
If he was really concerned about energy security, he would be pushing to make full use of UK coal, gas and oil resources.
One by one our individual freedoms will be whittled away these green totalitarians.
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