Matt Johnson: Former oil boss calls for ban on gas guzzlers

Feb 6 2008 by Matt Johnson, Liverpool Daily Post

CAN you imagine Bill Gates waking up one morning, calling his publicity flunkies together and declaring that he wanted to tell the world computers were bad for us?

Not easy to imagine it happening, is it?

And yet this week we have seen something not far off that scale of bombshell announcement from a leading figure in another global industry.

Oil.

Indeed, as former Chairman of energy giant Shell, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart may well rank high enough to be a member of the famous oil baron's club featured in JR Ewing's Dallas all those years ago.

Whether he gets the nod on the door there or not, his credentials are impressive, and his years of experience in the industry count for a good deal when hot topics and issues relating to oil exploration, extraction and refining are aired around the world.

So, consider his words to the BBC on Monday.

"Nobody needs a car that does 10-15mpg."

He went on: "We need very tough regulation saying that you can't drive or build something less than a certain standard. You would be allowed to drive an Aston Martin – but only if it did 50-60mpg."

No dreamt-up soundbite this. Sir Mark has done his homework, adding that his proposed rule would apply only to new cars. Old polluting jalopies would expire quietly (in most cases) of their own accord.

In the 24 hour-a-day media- driven world in which we live, who actually says what about some inconsequential issue rarely seems to matter.

That's most definitely not the case here.

As we said, his credentials are sound, even if his former industry colleagues think their owner may no longer be.

Interestingly, he said his years in industry had taught him that markets would find and provide solutions if Governments and other regulatory bodies required them.

He reminded listeners that when we eliminated coal fires in London we didn't say to people in Chelsea you can pay a bit more and toast your crumpets in front of an open fire – “we said nobody, but nobody, could have an open fire."

For crumpet lovers in this context, read owners of gas-guzzling super cars or 4x4s, who, oddly enough, are probably still living in Chelsea.

It's an interesting point of view aired by a very knowledgeable man.

More so, perhaps, because he has peered into the abyss awaiting a world which ignores issues of fuel emissions and global warming.

We have all been warned. Including the world's builders of super cars.

MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group