The German Greens just suffered a set back because voters weren’t happy with their plans to hike petrol prices.
So here’s what to do.
Green parties (and any other party appealing for green votes) should adopt a new policy of giving petrol vouchers to the poor (or at least, not to the rich, who don’t need any more freebies!)
I say “petrol” vouchers but they could be used to buy diesel too.
So the Government should give 1 voucher every week for let’s say 10 litres of petrol or diesel fuel, to every qualifying person – and you don’t need to have a car or a driving licence to qualify – which the person can use to buy that fuel – or exchange for cash – and the higher the petrol price, the more cash you can get back for your voucher.
Fuel price – Cash back for a 10 litre voucher
£1.30/litre – £13.00
£2.60/litre – £26.00
Then poor people will vote for higher petrol prices – providing of course that the government keeps the face value of the petrol voucher as a set volume of petrol, be that 10 litres, 16 litres or whatever – a constant and dependable amount.
The voucher must always be for a set volume of fuel – so that if the price of fuel goes up, the voucher is automatically worth more and the poor person automatically richer.
With such a policy in place, Green parties and others can get elected on policies to impose a high enough carbon tax to incentivise the transition to electric battery and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
GAS
Likewise a policy to build support for carbon-taxing gas bills would be to pay a carbon dividend awarded as energy units (with cash back) – a set number of gas kWh to each qualifying person according to a proportion of the average per capita gas consumption in that country, say half.
So for the UK, where per capita consumption was 11,675 kWh in 2019, you might set the carbon dividend at say 110 kWh/week, 1,430 kWh/quarter or 5,720 kWh/year.
That’s how much gas per capita you get for free – use more and you have to pay for the extra, use less or use none because you don’t even have a gas supply and you get cash back, at the price of the gas including carbon taxes.
Gas price – Cash back for a 1,430 kWh carbon dividend
£0.035/kWh – £50.05
£0.070/kWh – £100.10
So the higher the carbon tax is set, the greater the cash back incentive to cut back on your gas consumption and switch to electricity.
Voter energy freebies
Governments should restructure energy billing for voters’ primary residence as per my initial calculations using published UK gas consumption data.
Prices vary according to how much of a cash-back and gas freebie is offered.
£230
- give 5,800kWh per year gas freebie
- £230 cash-back per year for off-gas grid homes, deducted from electricity bills
- £300 gas bill per year – £75 per quarter – for average 13,500kWh consumption
- £0.04/kWh unit price
£500
We can offer a more generous £500 cash-back, a bigger gas freebie and reduce average bills by another £60/year too but then the unit price for gas must be raised significantly to raise the same revenue.
- give 9,129kWh per year gas freebie
- £500 cash-back per year for off-gas grid homes, deducted from electricity bills
- £240 gas bill per year – £60 per quarter – for average 13,500kWh consumption
- £0.055/kWh unit price
£600
- give 9,940 kWh per year gas freebie
- £600 cash-back per year for off-gas grid homes, deducted from electricity bills
- £215 gas bill per year – £53.75 per quarter – for average 13,500kWh consumption
- £0.06/kWh unit price
Other voter energy freebies –
- remove standing charges
- give free electricity kWhs when the weather is windy but until, as soon as possible, the grid transmission capacity is upgraded to allow all to benefit equally, it’ll be easier to offer windy-kWh-freebies by post-code, sorry – see EnergyCloud.Org
- recoup costs of energy freebies from higher bills for corporates, mansions & 2nd homes
- big businesses should pay the same gas unit price as domestic residents, that’s fair but more than they are paying now
- no additional net taxation from the energy supply sector (windfall taxes are another matter and can help government budgets but aren’t required to fund the energy freebies described here) but the government will likely have to tax those energy supply companies which seek to cherry-pick profitable customers so that the government can use those cherry-picking tax revenues to subsidise the freebies and cash-backs for unprofitable customers
- “free market” it is not, and some may fairly say, “may as well simply nationalise the energy supply sector if supply companies are to be so tightly regulated”
The prices quoted will vary according to the wholesale price of gas and assume government intervention to redistribute higher payments from businesses to subsidise domestic gas bills.
Because when you really need an energy watchdog then a Tory poodle simply won’t do.
I better shape up‘Cause you need a plan
A freebie plan
That can keep me satisified
I better shape upIf I’m gonna proveYou better proveThat my science is justified
Are you sure?
Yes, I’m sure you’ll be warm inside
UPDATE: 7 February 2023 – 20 minutes of Scottish energy politics listening on Lesley Riddoch’s podcast.
Scottish Scientist 