“Never again cheap fuel”

German economics minister Sigmar Gabriel’s controversial proposal of placing a flexible tax on fuel that would rise and fall according to oil prices is a good idea and it should not be abandoned despite the loud opposition to it, Mark Schieritz writes in Die Zeit. While Germany doesn’t exactly need new taxes and is currently enjoying a budget surplus, the cheap fuel at the pump is more of a curse than a blessing, Schieritz adds. The environment suffers because it no longer makes economic sense to invest in fuel-efficient engines, develop alternative drive technologies or expand public transport. For the past six weeks, the government has subsidised purchases of electric cars, but so far less than 2,000 car buyers have applied.

Read a CLEW article about the Green Paper on efficiency including the flex-tax idea.