A tax on immoral or unseemly purchases is a sin tax. This includes alcohol, tobacco and a few other things. The advantage of pushing through such a tax is that it is easy to pass because it does not affect the majority of taxpayers. The disadvantage from the government's point of view is the very same thing: It doesn't tax the majority of taxpayers.
If they could only find something that is very, very bad but everyone uses. At least everyone with enough income to pay more taxes. And that's when it hit them: Petroleum usage. Make it bad, very bad to use. And then tax people for using it. It's the perfect sin tax!
The Cap and Trade Tax and the many other "energy" and "jobs" disguises it comes under are proposals to do just that. The clue is that they are tearing something down more than they are building up something else. It could be the oil industry (I hate to break it to you, we still need it), your personal wealth (you could use it) or the very fabric of society (might come in handy too). Unfortunately, the climategate emails tore it wide open for many, for others it was already clear: There is no connection between energy usage and the end of the world. Except that if one ends, so does the other.
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