The carbon tax should start at $200 per ton of CO2 emissions from burning the fossil fuel, plus additional amounts for methane, CH4, that can escape from the mine, well, or pipelines.
Damages from the increasing concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gas are already happening, and will get worse, so the carbon tax should increase as the concentrations and damages increase.
When people purchase gasoline with a $2.00 per gallon carbon tax, they could add the carbon tax amount to an account where they buy it on credit. People will want to limit the debt they are accumulating with their deferred carbon taxes because it will affect their credit rating, and they will have to pay it back eventually.
The fastest way to stop driving gasoline powered vehicles is for communities to purchase fleets of electric vehicles for ride sharing. A typical fleet EV with a 30 kwh battery might have a price of $20,000, and get 5 miles per kwh, which would use 20 kwh per day if it was driven 100 miles per day.
If the fleet EVs can drive themselves to the locations of the people who want to use them, the price to users might be as low as $0.15 per mile. That is significantly lower than the current cost of owning and operating a gasoline powered vehicle, including depreciation on the value of the vehicle, insurance, and maintenance and repairs. Reduced greenhouse gas emissions will help keep insurance premiums affordable.
A lot of people who own gasoline powered vehicles will not be able to afford a carbon tax of $2.00 per gallon of gasoline.
Many people may still be paying for loans to purchase their gasoline powered vehicles, and the value of those vehicles will plummet.
If the value of gasoline vehicles plummets as transportation transitions to community owned fleets of EVs, the oil companies could be required to compensate the owners for that loss in value.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation