Which sounds reasonable until you think about what costs we refuse to externalize (road repair) and which costs we happily externalize (pollution).
It’s an interesting discussion I’ve had with coworkers recently where there’s a strong sentiment with some people that renewable energy needs to stand on its own, but the same argument could be made for fossil fuels and needing to account for environmental damage in pricing. Subsidizing renewable energy (tax credits, avoiding gasoline tax, etc) is an indirect way to compensate for the externalized costs of fossil fuels, which wouldn’t be palatable or popular if done directly.
Money needs to come from somewhere for roads, but it’s very hard to decouple infrastructure funding concerns from environmental concerns since no one is willing to tackle the problem head on with something like a carbon tax.
Which sounds reasonable until you think about what costs we refuse to externalize (road repair) and which costs we happily externalize (pollution).
It’s an interesting discussion I’ve had with coworkers recently where there’s a strong sentiment with some people that renewable energy needs to stand on its own, but the same argument could be made for fossil fuels and needing to account for environmental damage in pricing. Subsidizing renewable energy (tax credits, avoiding gasoline tax, etc) is an indirect way to compensate for the externalized costs of fossil fuels, which wouldn’t be palatable or popular if done directly.
Money needs to come from somewhere for roads, but it’s very hard to decouple infrastructure funding concerns from environmental concerns since no one is willing to tackle the problem head on with something like a carbon tax.