UK petrol prices could jump after Hurricane Harvey

The RAC has warned that as a result of the disruption caused by Hurricane Harvey in the US, Over the next few days we may see the price of unleaded petrol rise by up to 4p per litre.

Hurricane Harvey has left a 1/4 of America's oil refining capacity offline. This has meant that the US demand for petrol imports has jumped, which has in turn driven up prices.

RAC spokesman Pete Williams said this was now affecting UK forecourts.

"The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol on Thursday 31 August was 117.29p and diesel was 118.14p," he said.

"But we could see unleaded rise in the coming days to around 121p a litre, with diesel likely to stay stable around 118.5p."

He added: "This will be the first time unleaded has been higher than diesel since June 2016 and we expect this to be the case for some time to come - or at least until the US oil industry is able to get refineries back into operation."

Read More BBC 

How the 2015 budget affects UK motorists

• Petrol duty frozen for fifth year 
• 0.5p-a-litre Sept increase scrapped 
• Little change in company car tax 
• Severn toll crossing reduced
• 5p cheaper fuel in rural areas
• Tax-exempt classic cars from 1976 
• £100m fund for autonomous cars

The Chancellor George Osborne announced the abolition of planned fuel duty increases in the 2015 Budget, claiming the accumulated tax freezes would save Britain's 30 million motorists £10 every time they filled up at the pumps.

It's a typically oblique political claim; cutting a planned 0.5p-a-litre increase will not save a tenner for any motorist filling a typical fuel tank of, say, 50 to 60 litres. Rather, he's referring to the planned five-year freeze on the fuel duty escalator, in real terms. But then this was very much a Budget of posturing and smoke and mirrors, as the May elections loom large.

Drivers living in rural areas may benefit from 5p-a-litre cuts, as a new countryside tax relief kicks in on 1 April 2015, the Budget also revealed today.

And Osborne announced further investment into autonomous cars and revealed Government plans to reduce the Severn road crossing toll from 2018, when it passes into public ownership.

Read on for a full analysis with carmagazine.co.uk

Car That Runs On Air

The car that runs on air!  this video from CNN is already 4 years old. Looks like speed is a big issue as well as stability hence why it is being branded an "urban" car. I'm assuming that in 4 years some of these issues might have been ironed out in a new design, alas I cant find anything and can only presume that the technology rights were purchased by an oil company scared of losing in petrol sales? If anyone has any updates pleas post below as we would be really interested to find out