Crisis forces Chancellor to stress renewable energy
Britain must use less
oil, Gordon Brown is to warn as the Government braces itself for
rocketing petrol prices and the threat of fuel protests.
The
damage caused by Hurricane Katrina has affected supplies and sent the
price of oil soaring - hitting motorists in the pocket and prompting
British Gas to raise fuel bills. Hauliers are threatening to blockade
fuel refineries this week in protest.
The
Chancellor is expected to freeze petrol duty again later this autumn to
help ease the pain for motorists. If there is another blockade,
ministers have emergency plans to introduce petrol rationing - drawn up
after the last protest - by limiting supplies to essential workers such
as doctors, preventing the chaos caused by panic buying.
But in a speech to the
annual TUC conference this week, Brown will raise longer-term solutions
to cushion the British economy from oil shocks, including weaning the
country off fossil fuels towards greener, renewable energy - which
would also help slow down global warming.
A
senior Treasury source said that Katrina had given 'critical impetus'
to Brown's thinking about the longer term: 'We have got to do something
so we are not so vulnerable to these shocks and in the longer term we
are able to get things more stable.'
Yesterday
the RAC, one of Britain's leading motoring organisations, joined the
debate by warning higher petrol prices were here to stay and motorists
should start cycling more instead.
In
a surprise intervention, it said one in five car journeys were under
1.5 miles and therefore unnecessary. 'You could easily walk, cycle,
take the bus without putting yourself at any great hardship,' said
Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation.
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Complete article The Guardian
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