WHILE phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2032 may well be a very laudable, green SNP policy, it could be argued that the logic and timescale is completely unrealistic (Nicola Sturgeon reveals £60m scheme to drive growth in green motoring, The National, September 8).

Let’s deal with the logic first – in one fell swoop we destroy the market for Scottish oil resources. As the 2032 policy will require a major restructuring of the Scottish economy, how do we propose to do that when we killed off the goose that laid the golden egg (oil)?

Can the current electricity grid withstand the demand from the owners of electric vehicles? What about power outages? What if the wind isn’t blowing to turn the windmills that generate the electricity? What about the constraint of the low mileage of electric vehicles? What will it cost to install millions of electricity vehicle charge up points?

Voters depend on their cars and buses.

Unless we come up with a very radical plan, this will lose votes for the SNP. Who are we trying to impress? The Scottish Greens? For we are not impressing the voters. We want to achieve this radical policy eight years before the UK does, but we do not control all the economic levers and all the revenue streams. All this on top of the transition to independence.

Is independence so far on the back burner that the light has practically gone out? These crazy policies will extinguish the flame in voters if we are not careful.

The other vote loser is charging owners of diesel cars older than three years £20 to enter Glasgow City Centre. Are we mad? Not everyone can afford a new diesel car. The poor are being penalised once again – not a good strategy for a left-wing party. Taxis will be given Scottish Government funding to adapt diesel engines in vehicles older than three years. Why not extend this funding to private cars? If it would cost too much to do this, then drop this hair-brained scheme. Hard-pressed voters are not being given a long enough time scale to adapt to all these proposed changes.

We do want votes, do we not? This is daft pie-in-the-sky stuff again which will inflict self harm on the SNP. These policies are “green” but not of the environmental variety. For heavens’ sake, let’s get a grip.
William C McLaughlin
Thankerton, Biggar

I APPLAUD the SNP for setting their ambitions high regarding phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles by 2032. I am a believer that where there is the will, anything can be done. And if recent weather patterns haven’t proved to some that we’re on the brink of climate catastrophe, then perhaps these are the people not living in the real world. Other cities, other countries are using the ingenuity of their people to push ahead with policies that mitigate our damage to the environment. There is no reason we cannot too.
Sam Taylor
Edinburgh

“NEW schemes will be needed for people living in flats with no access to a driveway. Innovative methods are emerging, such as one in London to convert street lights into electric vehicle charging points.”

It’s not just those who live in tenements who need a solution: many houses don’t have dedicated off-street parking, and not every one has a street light right outside either! I have an allocated on-street parking space in front of my house, but unless they can devise a scheme which lets me legally run a charging cable from my house – Ducts under the pavement? A kerbside charging post? – then a plug-in electric vehicle is useless to me. I currently run a petrol/electric hybrid.
Peter Tysoe
via thenational.scot