Sensible conservatives?

An oxymoron? Perhaps not. Tories are taking the fight up to the Labour government in the UK:

"For months the single biggest policy difference on the environment between Labour and the Tories has been in their respective approaches to the climate change levy, a green tax on British businesses introduced by Gordon Brown in 2001.

The Tories claim the levy, the centrepiece of Mr Brown's green taxes, is an excessively blunt tax on the supply of energy to business, as it is applied to the use of energy, rather than the carbon emissions from that use of energy.

The Tories also cited figures suggesting Mr Brown's climate change levy ends up being higher for each tonne of carbon emitted by gas, rather than coal, and has prompted an increase in coal use in the UK. As a result, the Tories claim the levy does not provide an incentive to switch to lower carbon use. The consultation document also suggests the carbon levy on domestic business use of carbon could work alongside the EU's ETS."

Prediction: it won't last. They'll do something silly like propose a Poll Tax next.