Efforts by the car lobby to stop government plans to introduce a new tax on new cars failed on Monday after judges in The Hague ruled in favour of the government.

The new levy means energy-efficient cars will cost up to €900 less than they do now but some heavily-polluting monsters will go up by over €11,000.
Motoring organisations argue that the tax contravenes EU regulations because all the cars involved are EU-approved. But the judges disagreed.
So with that little victory under its belt, perhaps the government would like to take steps to solve the problem of the A1 motorway at Hoevelaken – now the second worst traffic blackspot in the country.
The government spent millions of euros building an extra lane to ease the jams, but this has been closed for the past three years while environmental organisations fight about its very existence in the courts.
In the meantime, the number of jams between Barneveld and Amersfoort has risen some 33%, according to Saturday’s Telegraaf. Not exactly environment-friendly, all those traffic jams and ticking-over engines. Officials don’t expect the green light for the use of the additional lane to be given until summer 2009.
One wonders if there is less pollution with the extra lane closed than with it open. It would be nice to see the calculations.