Running on empty?
Posted on the Bevan Foundation blog on 11 June 2008 The head of one of the World's biggest oil companies has stuck his neck out to warn that oil prices could double again before we know it In today's Independent the head of the Russian state energy firm Gazprom said we can expect £2-per-litre petrol. It is hard to see how this won't lead to a global slump. Arguments about cutting fuel tax entirely miss the point as it would take a significant drop in fuel duty simply to keep up with the rising price of oil. Ten years ago a barrel of the black stuff was trading at $13 a barrel. Five years ago it had doubled to $25. It hit nearly $140 last week. The real issue is how do we make our economy resilient to oil shocks. It is not just the price of petrol that is affected. Our economy is heavily dependent on oil. The price of gas and the price of steel are all closely linked to it – so the cost of building and heating homes is going up. The cost of building roads is set to rocket -