UK: Road policy oil assumptions attacked

The government’s roads policy has been labelled “absurd” after it emerged that decisions on road building and pay-as-you-drive schemes over the next decade will based on an oil price of no more than $70 a barrel.

New traffic and congestion forecasts, which are integral to government road policies, are based on an oil price of $65 a barrel in 2010, rising to $68 a barrel in 2015 and $70 a barrel in 2020, the Department for Transport has revealed.


The DfT is using the projections from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform despite widespread concerns over a sustained spike in the global oil price, which nearly breached $130 a barrel on Tuesday.

“We are in the process of using these updated projections to make new road traffic and congestion forecasts,” said Jim Fitzpatrick, transport minister. The admission came on the same day that the Sustainable Development Commission, a government green watchdog, called for a revision of national aviation policy due to doubts over the integrity of the environmental and economic data underpinning airport expansion plans.

Guardian