[Acrylic-bob]

I noticed on TV last night the news people were saying that China had doubled it's consumption of oil in the last four years, from 1.2 to 2.4 billion(?) barrels per year. how long can growth like that be sustained on the back of what is a finite resource?

I don't think it makes too much difference what level of taxation individual governments impose. Oil is now around $50 a barrel two years ago it was $35 dollars a barrel. That's somewhere round about a forty eight percent increase, in two years. The day is not far off when we will cease to be a net exporter of oil and the North Sea fields begin to dry up. We are already seeing this with natural gas. That is why British Gas is having to increase it's prices. That, and its own greed and stupidity, but that's another story.

If we had any sense at all we would all be flocking down to B & Q to buy as many solar panels as we could find.