Wandering way off-topic, what is interesting is just how big the cultural difference is between the US and Europe on this point. Cost of petrol here is several times what it is in the US and yet we're talking about further taxing it under the banner of "green taxation". The implications for this for our economy and society are very much the same as for yours (how do you think we shift stuff around?), yet it's now something that UK (and I think most European) voters will now consider. The economy doesn't "collapse", it just adapts to the increased cost.

By European standards, I consider myself an un-green petrol-head (I also own a petrol-hungry and totally unnecessary sports car, which I often drive just for the sake of it), and yet when I visit America I see the level of wasteful consumption as genuinely offensive to my European values.

The fact that MauganN20 will pull his hair out when someone suggests a sin tax on your side of the pond is just a testament to how big the cultural divide is. Over here, it's something that's viewed as increasingly necessary.

I really would like to believe that us Europeans are just a bunch of wet greenies, that the environmentalists have got it wrong and that there really is no problem with our current level of consumption and pollution. But after a few decades of greenie-bashing and denial, consensus over here is increasingly that that's just not the case.

So you are you guys going to "catch-up", or have we really got it all wrong? Time will tell, I guess.

Paul