Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Having closely followed the February IP week conversations that were taking place around the risk of supply disruption and forecasts on the price of oil, I am not surprised to see the escalating price of fuel driven by the on-going tensions with Iran.

According to This is South Wales, the average price of a litre of petrol on Wednesday last week was 137.34p. Moreover, the AA  predicted that the record high price of 137.37p, achieved last May, will soon be passed. The price of petrol rose 1.25p a litre last week alone.

Overall UK drivers are spending £6.81 million extra a day on fuel compared to a year ago, and £24.2 million more a day than they were two years ago.

The trade body for independent petrol stations, RMI Petrol, has joined the debate over the weekend, predicting that petrol could reach 142p per litre and diesel 150p per litre in the next month due to several factors, including: the situation in Iran, uncertainty over the ownership of Coryton refinery and threat of a strike by tanker drivers. The RMI group of 6,000 independent fuel retailers warned that the rise will push up UK inflation levels and potentially cause more damage to the currently unstable UK economy.

RMI have joined the AA in calling for the government to abandon the 3p increase in fuel duty, planned for August. They AA are also asking that the government remove the annual RPI increase in fuel duties.

This all comes ahead of National Fair Fuel Day tomorrow, where FairFuelUK will conduct a “Mass Lobby” directed at MPs to help convince the Government to cut Fuel Duty. The campaign group intends to deliver a report to 10 Downing Street tomorrow, claiming that a 2.5p-a-litre fuel duty cut would create 180,000 jobs. Alongside the report is a petition with over 130,000 signatures in support of the Fair Fuel UK Campaign which have already been handed in at No 10. Another 40,000 have been collected since then.

All of the above puts more pressure on Chancellor George Osborne to reduce the tax burden on drivers in his Budget later this month.

Happy New Year! It’s that time of year when everyone gets out their crystal balls and starts predicting what the big trends will be and what will have the biggest impact on our lives. My prediction (and I hate to admit this) is that electric vehicles will be a big talking point in 2011.

With hikes in fuel duty and VAT already pushing up petrol prices to record highs and bumper increases in buses, tubes and trains fares, people are going to seriously consider other options. Whilst some cities in the UK already offer eco-alternatives such as biking schemes, many commuters and families will be looking at their car and how they can save money by switching to a less gas-guzzling version.

Now I’ve never been a big fan of electric vehicles but I think if the car makers can get it right, I may be swayed and with support from the Government increasing, the day when electric vehicles become mainstream may be getting closer.

On 1^st January, the UK Government’s new scheme came into effect, offering grants – of up to £5,000 – for electric and ultra-low emission cars. Now that amount of money is not to be sniffed at! Will it work? Will 2011 be the year of the electric car?

I remain unconvinced for now until a car manufacture makes a stunning, long-distance electric car. I would prefer to see investment in high-speed rail links, improvements in road conditions and development of a more pleasant and affordable public transport system. Surely if public transport was more reliable, cheaper and efficient, people would use it more and that in turn would reduce the number of people driving and lower emissions. Sounds simple I know, but it could just work.

So following Larry Hagman’s (Dallas’ JR Ewing) switch to alternative energy with American solar panel company, SolarWorld, it seems solar is the hot topic of the summer!

Everywhere I look this week in the media there is a story on solar and its benefits, but is it really a friend for the future or will it turn and bite us?

A neighbour of mine has had solar panels fitted for a while now and seems quite content with them. I can see the benefit of using such a powerful natural resource as a source of power but would I put solar panels on my roof? Not likely to be fair and I’m sure I’m not alone in this view, although reports from BBC show that more than 2,000 homeowners have already had solar panels installed and are using electricity for free.

Now it seems the government has chosen solar as its new ‘thing’ and is creating cash incentives for people who generate their own power. As we saw with the car scrappage scheme, cash incentives seem to work in this country so I’m sure we’ll see solar panels popping up left, right and centre in the near future. But as they say, you don’t get anything for free!

Whilst we’re all basking in the warm glow that solar panels will give us free electricity and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, folks across the other side of the pond are asking questions about the long-term environmental impact of disposing of solar panels. Erica Gies’ piece on The Guardian’s website discusses what impact making and disposing of solar panels has on the planet and our health and it’s quite an eye-opener. I hadn’t realised that solar modules contained so many potentially dangerous materials.

I guess there’s two ways of looking at this – we either embrace solar full on, knowing that there are risks but that solutions for recycling are being investigated and that we need to have alternative fuels for the future or we wait, see how solar progresses in the next few years and hope that manufacturers find safer ways to make and dispose of panels and probably get left behind the rest of the world. Whichever way you go, it looks like solar is here to stay – all we need now is the sun!

Now if this was April 1st, I would have sworn that the story about the Volkswagen Beetle powered by human waste was an April Fools’ Day joke. However, it’s not April and this is not a joke. As reviewed by The Telegraph’s Harry Wallop, the clever people at GENeco, a Wessex Water subsidiary have converted a good old VW Beetle and made it run on biogas.

How we get and use fuel is an ever increasing hot topic with fuel companies looking at how wind and solar power can power our homes and car manufacturers looking at hybrid and electric engines. It seems we have become a nation obsessed with finding new ways of powering our homes and cars.

Personally, I think what we flush down the toilet is called waste for a reason and shouldn’t end up powering my car to the supermarket or the beach but you have to admit with an ever growing population – projections suggest UK population will exceed 65million by 2018 – it seems there will be an endless supply of ‘suitable materials’ that could be turned into biogas for many years to come.