Obama's new UK ambassador blots green record in Congestion Charge row

He may have won environmental plaudits the world over for ushering in a new era in US climate change policy, but that has not stopped President Obama facing criticism from an unlikely source today after it emerged that the new ambassador to the UK would continue to flout London's Congestion Charge.

The US Embassy confirmed that Louis Susman, who was sworn in to office two weeks ago, will adhere to the same policy of refusing to pay the Congestion Charge as his Bush-era predecessor, Robert Tuttle.

Obama has overturned a large number of President Bush's environmental policies, most notably introducing tough new rules governing the emissions of US vehicles, and green groups had been hopeful he would reverse the controversial Congestion Charge policy that has seen the US Embassy rack up outstanding fines of more than £3.4m.

However, a spokesman for the US Embassy told BusinessGreen.com that there would be no change in the US administration's view that the Congestion Charge constitutes a tax and therefore does not apply to foreign diplomats. Stressing that the decision had been taken in Washington he said that refusal to pay the charge was "a long-standing position that does not change with successive ambassadors".

He added that the US Embassy took environmental issues very seriously, noting that it had recently undertaken a range of green improvements to the building in Grosvenor Square and had made environmental performance a central component of on-going plans to build a new embassy in Wandsworth. He also said the majority of US diplomats working in London use public transport or cycle to work.

However, a spokeswoman for Transport for London (TfL) said it was " disappointing" that the US Embassy was continuing to avoid the charge, particularly given that over three-quarters of embassies in London do pay the charge.

"TfL and the UK Government are agreed that the Congestion Charge is a charge for a service and not a tax, which means that diplomats are not exempt from payment," she said. "All staff at the American Embassy should pay it, in the same way as British officials pay road tolls in the United States."

Sian Berry, former mayoral candidate for the Green Party, told The London Paper that the failure of the new ambassador to reverse the policy amounted to a "double standard" given the US Embassy's increased focus on environmental issues.

"I honestly expected them to change this policy," she said. "We have been invited to the US Embassy to watch a series of [environmental] films, and it is nice they have opened up. But on this issue they are not moving. It is a double standard when one part of the embassy is doing one thing, and another department is doing another."

The US Embassy's refusal to pay the charge sparked something of a diplomatic incident back in 2006, when then London Mayor Ken Livingstone branded the previous ambassador Robert Tuttle a "chiseling little crook" for his refusal to pay the Congestion Charge.

Other embassies have similarly refused to pay the charge, dismissing it as a tax. Russia currently owes £2.6m in outstanding fines, while Japan has fines totalling £2.3m.

However, the spokeswoman for TfL said the vast majority are now paying the charge, adding that the organisation was continuing to engage directly with those embassies that refuse to pay in order to increase compliance with the scheme.