[swatow]

I disagree. There is no reason to think that just because oil owners stand to lose a lot of money, they will be able to block changes. After all, if they were able to effect arbitrary changes, they could simply force the government to give them another $100 trillion dollars.

The reason countries resist a carbon tax is not the value of oil per se, but the total economic impact, which is primarily from the reduced consumption of fossil fuels etc. (note all existing carbon taxes are on the burning of fossil fuels, not their extraction). The economic impact comes from people being forced to pay for more expensive alternatives. High oil prices don't actually benefit a nation, unless that oil is exported, in which case a national carbon tax won't effect it.

So the real barrier to carbon taxes is international cooperation. But the book argues that the easiest way to create international cooperation is with a global carbon tax (rather than global cap and trade).