Environmental Protection Ministry officials say the use of less polluting gasoline is the main way to reduce pollution.
By Zafrir Rinat | Aug. 26, 2013

The government approved on Sunday a plan to sharply reduce air pollution over the next decade, mainly by getting older, heavily-polluting cars off the roads and inducing commuters to take buses.

The program includes testing out city buses that run on compressed natural gas, considered a relatively clean fuel. Another step, if several ministries agree, would be to subsidize employers who give financial incentives to employees for the use of public transport to get to work. Such incentives would replace current car expenses, subject to the agreement of the Finance Ministry and Histadrut labor federation. Another means of encouraging bus travel would be to discourage the use of cars by building toll roads. Yet another step would be to give significant tax breaks to taxi drivers owning hybrid cars.

The plan’s budget, submitted by Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz, is NIS 140 million for the next four years.

The plan would also impose lower taxes on lower-polluting types of gasoline, thereby encouraging people to buy more fuel-efficient cars.

Environmental Protection Ministry officials say the use of less polluting gasoline is the main way to reduce pollution.

Still, the ministry believes that even in a decade, only 3.5 percent of cars in Israel will be hybrid, and that the number of electric cars will fall below an initial estimate of 10 percent.

The plan further urges the Israel Electric Corp. to examine the benefits of imposing differential rates to encourage consumers to use less electricity, and of installing “smart” to help consumers use power more efficiently.

The Environmental Protection MInistry estimates that implementation of the plan over the next decade will bring a reduction of 60 percent in nitrogen oxide emissions, the component of pollution most damaging to health. Still, since many of the planned moves depend on the results of examinations by experts and agreements with the Finance Ministry, there is reason to believe that the program will not be implemented in full.

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