Sadly I think that such petitions are not only likely to fall on deaf ears but are to some extent counter productive.
I don't, for instance know how efficient a car such as the prius is in comparison to an older disco or a new fiesta, infact I don't think that such detail is actually known by *anyone*. What I mean by that is whilst CO2 per kilometer figures are widely thrown about, so are a lot of other figures, and not one that I have seen covers the likely dust-to-dust cost of producing the vehicle.
Now, that would, presumably involve the method and nature of manufacture, both in terms of the co2 produced, but the use of recycled materials and various other factors which are currently not taken into account.
Now, something like the prius is, by my understanding relatively costly to produce, it's certainly costly to dispose of (recycling the batteries, motors etc is not an easy task) but from a day to day running cost it may be environmentally sound, I don't honestly know. But is "day to day" the only cost we should be factoring into the tax? to say yes would seem rather unfair ..
Perhaps what we need is a good indication of the cost of production, destruction, maintenance and yearly running costs ? The first two could be added to the vehicle at time of purchase, the maintenance would have to be added to the impact of producing (and removing) the worn out part (and hence to it's subsequent cost) and the yearly running costs (costs in this case being the environmental ones) factored into either the fuel duty, or the road tax.
Factoring it into the fuel duty would remove the pressure from older vehicles and would be far "farer" since, whilst I'd probably have to pay more that's because I use more fuel than my mum does, and I am, by definition producing more co2.
People would be persuaded out of buying "new" cars because of the relatively high cost of brand new vehicles, or at least the tax burden on buying them, since this would impact on manufacturers they would effectively be forced (by that old chestnut supply and demand) to reduce their environmental weighting on a vehicle, by either producing them more efficiently, or some other such manner...
Hmm...
perhaps I should stick to killing kittens or whatever it is I'm being accused of this week.
