Note: shockingly according to multiple reports, representatives might actually be considering a carbon tax. Now is a great time to put the pressure on your representatives and urge them to take advantage of this opportunity to enact a price on carbon and have a real impact on climate change.
A direct carbon tax is the simplest and possibly most cost effective way to force our economic system to deal with climate change. If you make something expensive markets will find the cheapest way to avoid it. As theatlantic/obituary-carbon-tax-beloved-climate-policy-dies-47 notes, despite overwhelming evidence that a carbon tax would be effective it has never gained political support. No country with significant fossil fuel companies has ever sustained one.
Some high points:
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An Economists’ Statement on Carbon Dividends (the "The Largest Public Statement of Economists in History") has the support of (at last count) 3623 economists supporting a carbon tax.
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This form of tax is potentially one of the few climate policies that can survive a conservative supreme court. Taxation is squarely in the legislature's power.
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It has never been particularly politically popular. (But maybe that will change now that the country is on fire.)