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Fuel prices: car-free Sundays and 100 km/h? Debate sparked in Germany

2022-03-11T04:46:49.529Z


Fuel prices: car-free Sundays and 100 km/h? Debate sparked in Germany Created: 03/11/2022Updated: 03/11/2022 05:35 By: Thomas Schmidtutz Gas station: The sharp rise in fuel prices fuels the discussion about possible countermeasures. © Sebastian Kahnert/dpa Concerns about a possible supply failure for Russian oil and the sharp increase in fuel prices are fueling the discussion about possible co


Fuel prices: car-free Sundays and 100 km/h?

Debate sparked in Germany

Created: 03/11/2022Updated: 03/11/2022 05:35

By: Thomas Schmidtutz

Gas station: The sharp rise in fuel prices fuels the discussion about possible countermeasures.

© Sebastian Kahnert/dpa

Concerns about a possible supply failure for Russian oil and the sharp increase in fuel prices are fueling the discussion about possible countermeasures.

Long-standing taboos could now fall.

Munich – In view of the Ukraine war* and sharply rising fuel prices, the discussion about possible countermeasures is picking up speed.

It was only on Wednesday that the energy policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, Nina Scheer, spoke out in favor of reducing the value added tax for petrol and diesel from the current 19 to seven percent.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder had previously called for a rapid reduction in the VAT rate.

But the list of suggestions keeps getting longer.

In order to reduce Germany's oil consumption in the short term and quickly reduce dependence on Russian oil imports, the environmental organization Greenpeace is now pushing for a temporary speed limit, reports the dpa news agency, citing an internal Greenpeace paper.

According to this, the maximum speed on motorways should be temporarily limited to 100 km/h, 80 km/h on country roads and 30 km/h in cities.

High fuel prices: Greenpeace for longer home office rule

At the same time, Greenpeace proposes an extension of the home office obligation - and brings the return of the car-free Sunday into play.

After that, there will be two Sundays per month when road traffic will be completely cut off.

The only time there were car-free Sundays nationwide was during the oil crisis in 1973. At that time, millions of citizens took advantage of the car ban on a total of four Sundays and explored German autobahns, country roads and the streets on their doorstep on foot or by bike.

High fuel prices: consumer advocates for Sunday driving ban

Greenpeace is now hoping for a revival.

The environmentalists are by no means alone with their proposal.

Consumer advocates are also calling for restrictions on car traffic.

"Joint austerity measures such as car-free Sundays would be sensible actions," traffic expert at the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations, Marion Jungbluth told

Handelsblatt

.

In view of the high raw material prices, she called for "intelligent and targeted" relief measures from the federal government.

The Ukraine war* and growing concerns about possible delivery failures for Russian oil have recently further accelerated the recent rise in prices for petrol, super and diesel.

According to ADAC, the price per liter of diesel has risen by around 40 cents within a week, while the Super E10 has risen by almost 30 cents over the same period.

*Merkur.de is part of IPPEN.MEDIA

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-03-11

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