Is putting extra tax on aviation/aviation fuel, in the name of THE ENVIRONMENT, a cop out by governments?

Question

We hear that there will be more tax for everyone to pay when we go on holiday via aeroplane etc. Surely it is up to the government/aviation authorities to block NEW flights/flight schedules which are adding to the environmenmtal problems! We all know smoking kills, but cigarettes are still sold and god knows how much they pollute the atmosphere, but because governments make so much money from the TAXES it is acceptable. The message sent by governments seems to be "the planet can be polluted / destroyed as long as the governments make money from it "

If all the extra revenue taken from taxing of cigarettes went into research for cancer who knows we may have found a cure by now! Taxing us more because we want to fly is ok, but ALL that revenue should go to organisations that are fighting for the planet not into the tresuries pockets!

Answer 1

The governments answer to everything seems to be 'raise taxes'. How this will save the planet who knows. If transport costs rocket, so does everything else, we'll all be so skint we won't be able to afford food, that should solve obesity and global warming in one fell swoop. We'll all be 10 feet under.

Answer 2

The biggest cop-out is the current policy of not restricting flights OR taxing aviation fuel.

The trouble with absolute limits is that they're deeply unpopular and smack of discredited Soviet-style supply-side control. The trouble with taxes is that frankly, as the continued increase in motoring despite a huge tax burden proves, people find the money from somewhere and it doesn't restrict growth. The fact is, though, that people want to make their own choices about smoking and travel and so on, and will vote out any government that tries to take that away.

However, taxes can do some good, if the money raised is ring-fenced and spent on carbon reduction measures. They would be better than the present nothing.

Answer 3

taxing is a very common method of trying to change behaviour, after all if it costs more then people will (theoretically) do less of the behaviour.

it arguable that the flights per se are resonsible for significant environmental problms, indeed the 2..3 days immediately after transatlantic flights were suspended in September 2001 showed a marked change in the weaather patterns in the Atlantic. so just stopping new flighgts wont neccesarly cut it.

there is another leg to the taxation policy, which is the Treasury needs as much revenue as it can get, the current spending splurge is causing significant debt to build up and expectations that yet more expenditure is to come. Several of the taxes recently intorduced unde rthe banner of green taxes are really just more ways to squeeze tax out of individuals and companys (the money isnt actually going to fund or reduce greenhouse gasses, just straight to the govrnment coffers (examples of this include carbon tax on high energy users, landfill tax, subsidies on wind turbines for power generation, or domestic solar panels).

Wind turbines are the most laughable greenhouse gas policy - you still need the fossil fuel or nuclear power plant to provide energy when the wind is too low or too strong (so effectively you put in place double the capacity, and make fossil fuel nuclear plant uneconomic becuase they have to run all the time or the calorifiers & furnaces have serious problems.

Answer 4

The whole system of so called "Government" is based on Tax , Tax and more Tax , "Confiscating" more and more of the nations wealth , stealth taxes are invented by the day , causing untold misery to millions , ficticious reasons for inventing reasons for a Tax on this a Tax on this and wasting it on Lunatic projects which simply do not work and the "Cover Up" is introduced in a way which continually blames the Nation for the results , in reality the Government is full of so called "Experts" who haven,t got a clue as to Financial , or Commercial Reality , they couldn,t run a "One Ticket" raffle but they care not one Jot because they can and do waste Billions of the country,s wealth and then they can shrug and walk away from the disasterous results ,without being taken to task in any way because the Muddle,s are so great none of them are capable of sorting the whole mess out. It is comparable to an Alcoholic being let loose in Brewery . Which ever Party is in Power , Taxation is so out of Control they use it without any real knowledge of the the dangers they are creating for a once great nation , which they are slowly but surely reducing it to a 3rd world Tip . the "Nanny" state , the Politically Correct Lunatics and non stop control over what we can and cannot say, Unlimited and ever Increasing Taxation is having a Devastating result in the very existence of the "Great Britain" as was .

Answer 5

California-$1000 a year gas tax.
$300 avg. vehicle registration + average $37 (half) for smog certification every two years.Fees for every process and paper of any kind average $50. Though not everyone drives on toll bridges, average $100 toll (a million or two do every day).
Tickets and fines, $10. Average for sales tax at 7+1/2+1/4%, say $2000. Other inputs to the same receiver, say $350. Lets drop the gas tax to say $350 since most is federal. Lets make another allowance for conservatism and maybe an overestimate of population percentage utilization of 10%. We are still looking at $2500 plus before income and property taxes. How many people live in California?
My full screen scientific calculator only knows its something to the 13th power before income and property taxes.

Answer 6

Should travel and personal cars be restricted to the rich and polititians? Surely we should start looking at the amount of goods which are produced and transport around the world for economical reasons, or to avoid legislation. We should encourage countries to be self sufficient in farming and via sustainable methods, this would preserve cultural and rural life styles around the globe, encourage those people to look after the environment and hopefully give us better quality good, locally produced.

Alternative fuels need to be pushed for cars.

Travelling and meeting people and encountering different cultures is a great form of education, and it should not be the preserve of the rich and famous.

There are other ways of tackling globab warming....for instance why are not all new houses built with solar panel tiles, why is solar engery so expensive to install.......because government gets a percentage of our electric bills, and cheaper or free engery gives no benefit to the corporate giants or government!

Answer 7

Planes are the highest polluters per passenger mile. Taxing the aviation fuel will hike prices to travel by air and so reduce poularity of flying. Thats the reason I suppose.

As long as the tax is spent on environmental issues, then Im all for it.

Answer 8

It is hard to see how air travel could be rationed other than by price, but it must be curbed to save the climate.
The fashion for long haul competitive holiday travel is very damaging.
Hopefully some of the money raised will be invested in high speed railway lines, with trains floating on superconducting magnets, as they are doing in Shanghai and Japan.

Answer 9

Now everyone that bashes the USA on Kyoto, why do you complain?
Kyoto is nothing more than a government scam to increase your taxes.
Rather than provide tax incentives to encourage the use of cleaner fuels and environmentally friendly systems, they simply tax, tax, and tax again.
It's like, MP: "well, we're not meeting our carbon emissions under Kyoto, What ever shall we do?"
Other MP: "Oh I know, lets tax those big bad airlines, tax home heating oil, tax petrol and diesel until people can't afford to fly, can't afford to drive, and can't afford to heat their homes".

Answer 10

so called green taxes are never used to solve enviromental issues in the same way road tax isnt used to maintain roads.its all just revenue generation to keep THE BOYS AND GIRLS pensions topped up