The primary goal of taxing a negative externality is to discourage it. Using the funds for mitigation would be a secondary benefit. If you object to using tax

The primary goal of taxing a negative externality is to discourage it. Using the funds for mitigation would be a secondary benefit. If you object to using tax policy to shape public behavior because politicians cannot be trusted to efficiently allocate the resultant revenues then perhaps you'd be in favor of returning the revenue as a dividend[1], which is an option that has become more popular lately. [1] https://www.afcd.org/ https://www.afcd.org/