Clause 6 - Road fuel gas
Finance Bill
10:30 am
Mr Michael Jack (Fylde, Conservative)
May I at the outset remind the Committee of my business interests, which I fully declared on Second Reading? It is a pleasure to be under your chairmanship again, Mr. McWilliam.
The hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West reflected some arguments that I have made in my advocacy of improved fuels for diesel engines, such as biofuels and bioethanol, which we shall come on to later. He is right: it depends where one starts. I should like to ask the Economic Secretary, when he responds to the debate, to justify why 40p was chosen as the rate that will now reduce the inducement for people to run on liquefied petroleum gas.
The hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West is right to point out that natural gas-driven vehicles have detriments, particularly carbon dioxide emissions, and are not as good as the best of modern diesel engine technology. In terms of air quality and certain pollutants that have an adverse impact on health, particularly in congested city centres, LPG has a good case to make. It would appear that the Government considered that health improvement objectives have a higher value and that LPG should attract a higher level of discount than biodiesel. When the LPG discount came in, that generation of diesel engines was not as well controlled as modern ones are today.
If we are to understand the logic of the Government's alternative fuel policy, can the Economic Secretary tell us in detail why the rate of 40p has been chosen? What is the logic of the numbers that have been selected, and why is the clause drafted in that way that it is? Has the Treasury done any research to justify the change, and if so, will he lay it in the Library of the House of Commons, so that we can understand with greater clarity the way that the Government are approaching the new fuel world in which we are operating? We are going to debate aspects of bioethanol, and that relates to the question of the future approach towards the hydrogen economy. It also touches on clause 1 of the Energy Bill, which deals with the Government's obligations on national fuel security; it comes before the House next Monday. I look forward to detailed and specific responses to the questions that I have posed.