Why not just let market forces (like peak oil) lift fuel prices?
Market signals are too volatile in the short term and too weak in the long term to provide the effective incentives needed to rewire the U.S. for energy efficiency and renewables. Moreover, high prices alone, whether due to geological depletion or plain old gouging, would line the pockets of the energy industry and ravage the poor and middle class. They would also be counter-productive, since high prices, absent a carbon tax, would exacerbate global warming by unleashing production of costly and CO2-intensive fuels from “unconventional” sources such as Canada’s oil sands. Only carbon taxes can provide the right combination of market correctives and protection of American families and our environment.
