While Italy is lowering its speed limits on certain provincial roads and in cities to fight air pollution, Spain will be doing it as an energy saving initiative brought on by the civil uprisings in Libya.
The Libyan crisis is starting to hit hard Mediterranean countries who receive oil from the North African nation after they reduced their exports and oil prices began soaring.
The new, but temporary maximum speed limit on Spanish highways that goes in to effect on March 7th, will bring down the limit by 10 kph, going from 12o km to 110 km.
“We are going to go a bit slower and in exchange for that we are going to consume less gasoline and therefore pay less money,” said Deputy Prime Minister Perez Rubalcaba who also said that “a car running on gasoline will use 15 per cent less fuel at the new, lower speed limit.
We don’t know what gas currently costs in Spain, but here in Italy every liter of black gold that currently goes into our gas tanks costs between 1,536 and 1,565 euros and the idea of helping citizens save on the energy bill is completely out of the question is this country, because the government rakes in a whopping 52% on excise taxes.
You’ll find it hard to wrap your heads around it, but we are still financing the 1935 war in Ethiopia, the 1956 Suez crisis, almost every flood or earthquake since 1963 and even the 2004 pay hikes for bus and subway drivers with our fuel taxes.