If you get what you say you want (i.e. reduced consumption) then your revenue decreases which will force you to find another source of revenue. The cynic in me

If you get what you say you want (i.e. reduced consumption) then your revenue decreases which will force you to find another source of revenue. The cynic in me would say that there's no real end to the list of behaviors our government would like to engineer out of the population. The benefit to them is two-fold; a possibly short-lived, but endlessly repeatable, source of income, and a populace ever more willing to accept government manipulation.