[Peakoil] Report urges vehicle congestion charge

[Antony Barry]

Report urges vehicle congestion charge


February 7, 2007 - 8:34PM


Australia must reduce its reliance on oil and consider imposing  
vehicle congestion charges in major cities, a key report on the  
country's future oil supply suggests.

The analysis by the Senate's bipartisan Rural and Regional Affairs  
and Transport committee also calls for increased funding for ethanol  
research to help develop the biofuels industry.

The document, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, contains 10  
recommendations aimed at shoring up Australia's future energy supply  
and making the country less dependent on fossil fuels.

It suggests a congestion charge, which Australian governments have  
been reluctant to introduce as a means of combating gridlock and  
vehicle pollution.

"If motorists are not required to pay for the costs they impose on  
others, their behaviour will not respond to the full cost, and  
economically inefficient overuse of the road will result," it says.

"Tailored road use charges are suggested as a way of reducing the  
external congestion cost. Motorists would be charged to use roads at  
the most congested times and places."

The report said the congestion charge may be more palatable for car- 
addicted Australians if the money went towards improving public  
transport.

The report comes as "peak oil" theory experts and environmentalists  
link growing concern about global warming to the overuse of oil.

Peak oil theory proffers that oil production will peak between now  
and 2030, then gradually dwindle until crude oil reserves run out.

The report warned Australia's demand for petroleum is projected to  
increase by two per cent a year, reaching 1.2 million barrels a day  
by 2030.

At the same time, the country would become far less self-sufficient  
in oil production.

It called for more money for research into ethanol as an alternative  
energy source - which was immediately welcomed by the Greens as well  
as Nationals senators Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash.

Senator Nash said the government had been slow to act on biofuels  
compared with the US, where President George W Bush had pledged to  
increase ethanol production five-fold to 35 billion litres by 2017.

The Australian government's alternative fuels production target is  
350 million litres by 2010.

"The US target is around 447 litres per person and the Australian  
target is around 16 litres per person," Senator Nash told parliament.

"To me, that is just not good enough."

She repeated her call for the government to mandate ethanol targets.

"If the oil companies do not meet those annual targets, then those  
annual targets should be mandated," she said.

"We have this alternative fuel right here in front of us - ethanol -  
and we're not doing enough."

Senator Joyce said fuel companies were standing in the way of a  
sustainable biofuels industry in Australia.

Greens senator Christine Milne said the government had been  
lackadaisical in its approach to alternative fuels.

"As well as suffering the impacts of climate change in Australia, we  
have an energy security crisis because of the government's failure to  
address dependence on oil," she said.

© 2007 AAP

Source:<http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Report-urges-vehicle- 
congestion-charge/2007/02/07/1170524162123.html>


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