Suchergebnisse

Consequences of consuming petroleum in transportation—e.g., air pollution, global warming, energy insecurity—have stimulated interest in alternative automotive fuels and in vehicles that can use multiple fuels and combinations of fuels. Consumer behavior in choosing motor fuels for flexible‐ or dual‐fuel vehicles will likely be a key factor in creating and maintaining stable markets for new fuels. This paper explores the implications of recent studies on the sensitivity of choice of gasoline grade to price. It analyzes natural gas vehicle owners' refueling behavior, based on a survey of natural gas vehicles in Canada. The paper uses statistical models to estimate the importance of performance, range, refueling convenience, and other factors in the fuel choice decision. Choice of gasoline grade is highly sensitive to fuel prices. The cost advantage of natural gas also is of paramount importance for natural gas users. However, refueling convenience is essential for overall satisfaction and is a major factor in the frequency of natural gas use. Alternative fuels not only must be cost competitive with gasoline but initially will require a cost advantage so as to overcome range limitations and refueling inconvenience.

Governments throughout the world have enacted policies to support the introduction of alter- natives to crude oil. These policies are viewed as means to achieve multiple objectives such as energy independence and security, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, protect fuel con- sumers and support infant industries. We evaluate the trade-o�s presented by di�erent policy instruments such as renewable fuel (biofuel) standards (RFS), fuel GHG intensity standards (FGIS) and fuel GHG tax in achieving these objectives. Using a two-region partial-equilibrium model, we �nd that the relative performance of the two policies, RFS and FGIS, relative to each other and relative to a fuel tax, depends on whether the policy is global or regional in scope. Whereas the FGIS has better environmental performance than RFS when applied globally, the two policies lead to similar environmental outcomes when the policy is regional. RFS leads to bigger marker share for non-crude oil fuels than both FGIS and fuel tax.

In the autumn of 2000, increases in the price of petrol led to fuel protests across Britain. It was argued that high levels of indirect taxation on fuel, which had risen rapidly in each year from 1993 to 1999 (the "escalator", which saw duties on fuel increase by 3 percentage points above inflation between 1993 and 1997, and 6 points between 1997 and 1999), had provoked the protests. Since abandoning the escalator in the 1999 Pre-Budget Report, the Chancellor has not increased fuel duties above inflation in any Budget. As has become customary in recent years, it was announced in the 2005 Budget that the planned increase in duties in line with inflation that would normally come in from April 2005 had been postponed until September, when it would be reviewed in the light of oil prices. Despite the escalator being abandoned, petrol prices have risen once again and the threat of renewed protest has been debated. This Briefing Note updates earlier work (see asterisked footnote below) from the time of the last petrol crisis and considers the extent to which recent increases in prices can be attributed to government policy. It also considers whether there is a case for duties to be changed as a direct result of pump price changes, and examines evidence on the effects of fuel duty changes on different groups of the population.

The current state of development of fuel cells as potential power sources is reviewed. Applications in special fields with particular reference to military requirements are pointed out.

This annual report of the European Environment Agency (EEA) provides a summary of the information on the quality of fuels in the European Union (EU) in 2018, as reported in 2019 by EU Member States, Iceland and Norway under Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels (the Fuel Quality Directive, FQD) as amended by Directive 2009/30/EC. Each year, under the requirements of FQD Article 8, EU Member States must report information relating to the volume and the quality of petrol and diesel fuels sold for road transport in their territories. More specifically, Member States must sample fuels each year and analyse their technical characteristics to ensure that they are consistent with the requirements of the FQD. The limiting values set out by the FQD concern parameters such as, for petrol fuels, octane number, content of lead, manganese, oxygen and sulphur, etc. and, for diesel fuels, content of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), manganese and sulphur, etc. Member States assess the quality of fuels through a Fuel Quality Monitoring System (FQMS). European Standard EN 14274 provides information on how to set up an FQMS, depending on the country size and statistical model used, as well as guidance on determining the minimum number of samples to be taken. Since 2015, the EEA has supported the European Commission's Directorate-General for Climate Action in the compilation, quality checking and dissemination of information reported under the FQD.