17 August 2005

Subsidising oil consumption

A Social Policy Bond would subordinate policy to meaningful, agreed, outcomes. It's unlikely, I think, that we'd choose to divert scarce resources to, amongst other things, oil consumption:
Jan Lundberg, veteran petroleum analyst who joined the environmental movement and fought industry expansion, has a different explanation for record gasoline prices than the one provided by his former firm, Lundberg Survey, which on Aug. 14 attributed them only to high crude oil prices.

"Lundberg ... told Fox News that it is erroneous to calculate that the adjusted price for gasoline, including inflation, is under the price of two and a half decades ago. This is because "subsidies - direct, indirect and hidden, such as the War on Iraq -- to oil and refined products, if included in the price, would make oil cost perhaps $120 per barrel today. This is one reason people must work longer hours and obtain extra jobs," he explained." Source

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