A federal carbon tax is imminent in the USA, and Exxon is pushing it (opens in new tab)

Oil is in everything. Transportation of course, but it's in our clothes, our houses, computers, our food (fertilizer for example), etc. It's very difficult to point to something that oil ISN'T in (here in the US). I'm sure I'll get responses which do.

NPR Planet Money recently did a series of podcasts about oil - it was pretty good. #4 was the episode where they talked a bit about what oil goes into: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/08/19/490408060/oil-4...

>People who compare oil and tobacco ignore the benefits

That's wrong. This article compares the two because it seems both groups committed fraud via funding misinformation campaigns that had a goal of affecting legislation on regulation.

Extremists are the ones who cannot deal with the obvious negatives of oil along with the benefits.

How about nuclear power? It's the most viable energy source that we have. It doesn't emit carbon. It could power the world.

Funny that the people who get labeled "climate deniers" are also the most pro-nuclear, while the loud environmentalists are the most anti-nuclear.

I frankly don't give a damn what they believe or don't believe, if they're going to solve the problem anyway.

"Cool, and what's your proposal for an alternative energy source to power modern civilisation?"

We have several alternatives.

The only problem they have is that most of them are difficult to store in a self-contained moving vehicle that turns rubber wheels to move on flat blacktop.

So, we increase reliance on vehicles that turn steel wheels on steel tracks, and get their power from overhead wires.

Next question?

> bicycle commuter

And I propose the e-bicycle conversion kits, generally for the price of a commuter class cheap bike the cost per watt of motor and cost per KWh lithium battery has been dropping by half every couple years. Today in 2016 you're looking at about two watts of motor power per dollar (so $500 kit would get you more than a horsepower, and riding on horseback seems adequately fast) and about $30 per mile of battery range so $500 of lithium ion should get me around 15 miles on a charge (depends a lot on speed, hills, how much you pedal, etc)

Of course the government is getting in the way with all kinds of regulation and outright banning in some more backwards cities (NYC, etc). But I don't live in a backwards city so no problemo.

Until 2016 I'm not going to ride a bike to work because I'll be all sweaty during the roughly two months per year the weather is good enough to ride a bike. However my son is very interested in the mechanical work of assembling an ebike conversion, and it sounds like a fun teen boy and dad project to work on together, so in 2017 I could slowly ride an ebike to work mostly sweatless. Its an interesting technological development. I have not gone beyond a couple hours of online research on this project, but I'm figuring for a couple grand, which isn't much, we can build matching ebikes.

Car guy here: None of my car guy friends "roll there eyes" at Teslas. Myself and my "car guy" friends are all Porsche guys who all work on their own air cooled cars - we rebuild our own motors and transmissions, corner balance our cars for the track, etc. Then again, we probably aren't cool though. ;-)

I feel it's important to note that the entire world of "not car guys" spends pretty much every interaction with "car guys" rolling their eyes about everything. Generally speaking, people just don't care about being cool for the sake of subcultures.

If a corporation, especially a multi-national, benefits from a tax, I would question the benefit to society from that tax.

Not to say that society would not benefit, but it does make me wonder.

I would agree.

I have deeply negative feelings about Exxon for misleading the public on the dangers of fossil fuel combustion while having ample knowledge of that danger (they've known for 40 years). However, I'm a pragmatist; it's more important that we take steps which will move us off carbon-generating energy sources than it is to render punishment. If Exxon happens to benefit, fine. I'd be more pleased if their executives were convicted on criminal charges and the tax was implemented due to the overwhelming will of American voters, but this is fine too.

It's nowhere near enough to meaningfully affect demand. The EIA estimates[1] that gasoline has to get 25-50% more expensive to reduce demand by even 1%.

[1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=19191

OTOH, most carbon capture schemes need a carbon price about triple of that to break even (IIRC).

No it isn't. US gas prices are comically low compared to virtually every other country on the planet. The exceptions are countries with stupidly low gas prices like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. If this tax was applied it wouldn't push America into European levels of pricing. It wouldn't even nudge it into Canadian pricing levels.

Hasn't US petrol prices seesawed from $4 to $2 fairly recently?

Of course, over here in the UK it's £1.10/liter, which is about $6.

Gas prices vary by that amount just from state to state.

And that will just be the start.

Compared to inundating Manhattan? Perspective.

People in rural communities typically earn less and consume more petroleum based products. They don't have public transportation. A carbon tax will only further widen the gap between the rich and the poor.

Rural communities spend more carbon than city communities. Basically they drive farther. Also less people live in apartment buildings which are more efficient to cool/heat because of shared walls.