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funperson

I'd imagine they're against carbon taxes because they're against taxes in general. They probably don't want the gov't meddling in the economy either because they support free markets, but we do share the environment so how could one create a rights-based argument for or against environmental protection

MayCaesar

There are as many stances as there are libertarians. What unites us is our preference of individual freedoms and liberties over collective values - but many of us also realize that individual freedoms and liberties often collide, and the collective sometimes has to step in to resolve individual conflicts. The difference between us and the conventional classical liberals is that we usually only allow for the most minor intervention and in the most urgent cases, directly threatening people's lives or assets. Beyond that, the specific policies we advocate for strongly vary between us. Not all of us are strongly against taxes, although we generally advocate for much smaller tax rates than, say, classical liberals do.

Personally, I do not support carbon taxes: they are too direct and invasive. Creating natural economical incentives is generally a more solid approach than penalizing non-abiding the desired behaviors. Rather than taxing companies for producing carbon dioxide, I would prefer to see tax exemptions to those companies that champion environment-friendly technologies. You could say that the difference is merely semantic, because the outcome is the same: those who produce carbon dioxide pay higher taxes than those who do not... It is not entirely false. However, in practice human behavior on the free market strongly differs for these two approaches, and I think that my suggestion will lead to a much softer transition towards environment-friendly technologies, than the brute force approach - which is more likely to lead to the companies falsifying data in order to stay competitive and to avoid higher taxation.