Gasoline Carbon Tax Could Fund Bike Projects

A new climate crises bill is taking shape on the Hill.

[Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.),  Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.)] are floating the idea of levying a carbon tax on each gallon of gasoline, which would be passed along to consumers at the pump. The fee would be linked to the market price of carbon emissions bought and traded by utilities and other industries.

Revenues from the tax would be used to fund programs promoting cleaner transportation options like public transit, bike and pedestrian projects and carpooling.

Comments

[SJE]

I fear that this will be an excuse to blame cyclists.

Why not just raise the gas tax to cover all non-greenhouse externalities and let it go to general revenue? The increase in the price of gas would get a lot more people out of their cars, and those people would be pushing for better non-auto transportation alternatives.