Taxpayers are paying the costs of what fossil fuel based companies pull out of the ground in higher medical costs, "emergency funding" for disaster relief, and pollution. Even the deficit costs of Katrina ($114 Billion) are still rolling their way through the federal budget.
By accurately determining the true cost of fossil fuels and placing a tax on those companies that produce these fuels that reflect that we might begin to be able to pay for the cost of droughts, storms, fires, and floods, and drive the marketplace to sustainable alternatives.
The tax could have built in it a dividend that comes back to taxpayers in a refund progressively based on income, so that the ones who will most be affected by the higher costs passed on to them would have a way to choose alternatives.