Democrats Weigh Carbon Tax

[MichMan]

5. Impossible to administer receipts

Jut one example. All plastic products have petroleum in the raw material.

I worked in the auto supply industry for decades. Company A manufactures raw plastic pellets and gets taxed, they pass the tax on as a raw material price increase to a supplier B that uses the plastic to manufacture widgets. That user is then forced to pass along the tax plus their own carbon usage in higher widget prices to their customer, the auto manufacturer C. The auto manufacturer raises the price of the car to cover all the components that were assessed a carbon tax throughout the supply chain plus their portion.

Each of them also incurs higher transportation costs from higher fuel prices for everything shipped in a truck that will also get passed on to the next one in the chain. Add in higher energy prices raising the cost of any energy used in manufacturing, office and R&D facilities for all of them.

I don't want to even think how you would tax components that were manufactured overseas in China, Mexico or India that wouldn't treat US manufacturers unfairly.

How would someone buying a car with thousands of parts have any idea how much of the cost of it was in carbon taxes? Then the car is financed for 5, 6, or 7 years. Would the end consumer have to submit receipts that amortized the sum of all those taxes for each year they file?