29 Apr 2009
Norway is considering a radical way to cut emissions from road transport – a complete ban on fossil fuel-powered cars.
While the UK considers plans for an electric car incentive scheme and the US mulls a tightening of fuel efficiency standards, finance minister Kristin Halvorsen is proposing a ban on sales of all cars that run solely on fossil fuels from 2015.
According to Reuters' reports, Halvorsen says the plan would provide a massive stimulus for investment in hybrids, electric cars, and biofuel and hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Labor prime minister Jens Stoltenberg is believed to oppose the plan and therefore it is unlikely to be adopted in full. But Halvorsen's Socialist Left Party, which forms part of Norway's coalition government, insisted that the proposals could play a key role in meeting the country's high-profile target to become carbon neutral.
"This is much more realistic than people think when they first hear about this proposal," Halvorsen told the news agency, arguing that any ban would push carmakers to invest in alternative vehicle technologies.
She also said that Norway's oil and gas industry would continue to meet global demand for fossil fuels for decades to come, and insisted that the ban would not be imposed on cars already on the roads.
"A lot of people are very fond of their cars, they're like a member of the family," she said. "A lot of people thought that this proposal also would go after the cars we already have. That is not the case, it's the new cars that are bought after 2015."
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Fuel car ban
Perhaps Norway can address the world CO2 problem most effectively by not producing and selling fossil fuels after a period of five years. Should the country that exports carbon fuels be taxed for the CO2 release that is inevitable. Norway could save up oil and gas revenue to build many nuclear power plants and sell the power to Holland, Denmark, Germany and Poland over existing and new power links to replace the consumption of coal, oil and natural gas. There is no truth to the idea that the mining and refining of nuclear fuels releases more CO2 than the reactors prevent the release of. In fact shutting down gas, coal and oil powered powerplants by substituting nuclear power plants frees up more than enough fossil fuels to do this mining and refining where nuclear electricity cannot be used directly for such purposes. Norway could then start to produce liquid fuels from CO2 and nuclear energy as well. There is not a nation that is small enough to not have room to store all the fission products of all the world's reactors with adequate safety. Perfect safety is not possible and cannot be required for any human activity including the driving of automobiles. Oil revenues should be used also to support the TH!NK company, but it should require THI!NK to make a plug in hybrid version so that the range of the vehicle never is of any concern and is never mentioned. From this day on the government of Norway should not buy any passenger vehicle that is not a TH!NK or other plug in hybrid. People who believe or even promote un-knowingly or simply willfully that fossil fuels are now not needed for modern civilizations to operate are deceiving the public. ..HG..
Posted by Henry Gibson, 04 May 2009