The LA Times, Apr 21, right around Earth Day, has no trouble urging society to adopt a tax on our emission of carbon.

A Tax Everyone Can Love

Excerpt:

Economists call the hidden costs of energy consumption — the prices of climate change, pollution and national security — “externalities.” They’re real costs, but they’re not included in the price of the gasoline you put in your car or the electricity you use at home.

Even the federal gasoline tax that’s now levied doesn’t come anywhere near covering its purpose of paying for highways. The gas tax has been stuck at about 18 cents a gallon since
1993; if it had risen with inflation over those 20 years, it would be about 30 cents.

A federal carbon tax, though, would apply to more than just gasoline. It would be levied on any fuel that produces carbon dioxide emissions. That means it would fall heavily on coal, less heavily on oil and only lightly on natural gas. It would make energy efficiency more valuable and alternative energy (like wind power) more competitive.