Diesel costs 48.8p a litre before tax and duty are added so 1.27 (in the KT1 area) seems excessive - esp galling when you hear what kind of money Esso, Shell and BP are making in clear profit - and what with talk today of 'fuel poverty'. (Makes you wonder what the all powerful Rockefella's must be worth now). Brown will no doubt sieze on this as an opportunity to save himself and some concessions (u-turns) on road tax may appear - however this will probably come too late.
As well as rising tax on fuel we have rising Oil prices fueled by shortage of supply and heavy demand. The Oil industry is the most regulated and subsidised industry, esp in the U.S (and probably the world). It takes years of permit application and billions of investment to get a single Oil refinery in production - if Brown is hoping flip some sort of switch and crank up North Sea production he's got another think coming. Regulation and subsidy are largely responsible for limiting the supply of refined petrol -whilst demand has gone through the roof virtually no extra production capacity has been added. This is even more acute in the U.S mainly due to Bush's engery bill.
BTW you can lobby your MP online at
http://writetothem.com/ or if you are in the U.S vote Ron Paul and stop the Oil Co subsidies and limit the federal reserve system.
