Energy tax to help the miners

David Stephens, Farrel Bradbury and others have argued for an energy tax. As Stephens sums it up: 'Income and corporation tax, NIC, VAT, are all taxes on human input, which make labour expensive, forcing employers to shed workers. These taxes should be replaced with an energy tax (supplemented by an adequate universal basic income to replace social security). The energy tax would be collected at oil and gas terminals and pitheads. These reforms would remove from employers the burden of collecting taxes, improve profitability, reduce the costs of employing people and create jobs.'

'Coal imports would decline because of the energy tax element in the transport costs'

For the medium term, UK coal could pay a lower energy tax, if the government were to choose this route for subsidising the pits that were earmarked for closure - although Farel Bradbury points out that with an energy tax UK coal would anyway become more competitive: it is likely that coal imports would decline because of the energy tax element in the transport costs for imported coal.

  • David Stephens, Tir Gaia Solar Village, Rhayader, Powys, Wales LD6 5DY (tel 0597 810929). See his newsletter of Nov. 11th '92.

  • Farel Bradbury, PO Box 4, Ross-on-Wye HR9 6EB (tel 0600 890599; fax 0600 4514). See The Book of Visions - An Encyclopaedia of Social Innovations' (Virgin Books, 1992), page 69, and his Dec '92 paper 'An integrated strategy for economic development'.

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