Today's sadly inevitable decision to delay the planned increase in fuel duty met with an equally inevitable chorus of crowing from motoring groups.

"Good," said the seemingly endless battalion of associations, lobbyists and trade groups who claim to represent motorists' interests, before realising they had the chancellor on the ropes and adding that "of course, it doesn't go far enough."

Not satisfied with their victory, spokesman after spokesman trotted out their view that while the postponement was welcome, rising oil prices and the fact that many hauliers are "on the brink" meant the government should go further and cut fuel duty.

But where was the countervailing view?

The Green Party and bodies such as Friends of the Earth did their best, pointing out that rising oil prices show exactly why the government should embrace measures such as higher fuel duty that serve to wean people off of fossil fuels.

But as is so often the case it is all too easy for the media and business groups to dismiss such arguments as the preserve of the old hair shirt brigade. Consequently, the view that fuel prices are too high and need to be reduced is allowed to become established as the conventional wisdom almost unchallenged.

What is urgently required are green business leaders who are willing to make the case for potentially unpopular green measures from an explicitly commercial perspective.

Where are the retailers committed to green supply chains who are willing to say that yes, high fuel prices are a problem, but they pose a far bigger problem for those companies running inefficient fleets than those who are already moving to improve their fuel efficiency?

Where are the electric car and rail companies who are willing to argue that while rising fuel prices represent a challenge for road hauliers and conventional auto manufacturers they represent a great opportunity for greener alternatives?

Where are the business groups - I'm looking at you CBI - who are brave enough to point out that lobbying for lower fuel duty in the face of soaring global oil prices only serves to distract from the urgency with which businesses should be looking for alternative business models that leave them less exposed to fossil fuels?

The problem is that barring a couple of noticeable exceptions, there is a near complete absence of such figures, and while the silence is particularly noticeable with regards to the fuel duty debate it is similarly evident around almost every green business issue.

For example, I've spoken with several people within the wind industry who feel that the trade groups that represent them are far too willing to keep their counsel for fear of alienating Whitehall mandarins, when they should be screaming from the rooftops about the countless barriers being put in the industry's way.

They have a point - you know for sure that if the motoring lobby faced even a fraction of the challenges that have dogged the renewable energy industry they would have taken to the streets long ago.

The scarcity of business figures willing to speak up for the sector is understandable in many ways. The bulk of specialist green firms are still relatively small and tend to be more focused on building their own businesses than they are on becoming champions for a whole sector. Meanwhile, those larger firms that have signalled their support for a low carbon future - Tesco, M&S, Virgin, HSBC, et al - are hampered by either a traditional reluctance to get involved in political debates or an unwillingness to anger shareholders by being seen to lobby for measures that would result in higher energy costs.

But the fact remains that as the economic slowdown begins to bite and those lobbyists representing carbon intensive industries become ever more desperate green businesses will need vocal champions more than ever.

There is a strong long term business case for measures that increase the costs for carbon intensive firms and incentivise the shift towards alternative technologies - plenty of firms realise this, we just need more willing to come out and say so.