Consider a price floor on the sale of fossil fuels ⛽  …

Some people have suggested a carbon tax to raise the cost the fossil fuels. These taxes are unpopular, especially among fossil fuel interests (miners, oil workers, farmers with mineral rights) who fear lost profits and less jobs when fewer people buy fossil fuels. That’s a totally reasonable concern — that’s the goal of a carbon tax.

But what if instead of taxing carbon — or on top of taxing carbon — we were to set a minimum sales price on the sale of fossil fuels. For example, gasoline might currently cost $2.65 a gallon. But under a minimum sales price, no retailer could legally sell gasoline for less then $5.00 a gallon. Motorists might grumble a lot when they go to fill up their car, but fossil fuel interests would be held harmless — those who fill up at the higher price, less frequently — end of depositing the same amount of money in the hands of fossil fuel industry.

Liberals like to beat up on the oil industry, for good reason. They along with the railroads, the coal companies, the automakers and other leading industries have actively been denying climate change for a long time. But at the same time, they do provide an essential service, and their industry’s buy in to any climate plan is essential if we want to move forward. Maybe the solution would be a hybrid approach: combine a carbon tax with a price floor to ensure fossil fuel producers are held harmless as people move away from the climate disrupting fuels.

That’s how many states regulate cigarettes — it’s not a criminal offense or illegal to smoke cigarettes outside of public office buildings. But instead, the price of cigarettes is kept high by levying a special tax on each pack of cigarettes, along with requiring the retailers sell them at a state-proscribed minimum price. This discourages smokers, especially young ones, while ensuring retailers and tobacco interests aren’t harmed by fewer people smoking.