You Break It, You Buy It: How Gas Taxes Show Us How to Pay for Climate Cleanup

By Dean Muller

President, Wisconsin for Environmental Justice

At its core, the traditional gas tax is built on a simple, everyday idea: if you use something, you help pay to maintain it.

When you drive, your car gradually wears down the road, wears out asphalt, and puts stress on bridges. Since bigger cars and longer trips use more gas, paying a tax every time you fill up is an easy way to make sure everyone pays their fair share of road repairs based on how much they drive.

Applying the Same Idea to Big Energy

The same "you break it, you buy it" logic applies to companies that produce oil, gas, and coal.

Just like cars wear down highway pavement, extracting and burning fossil fuels wears down our environment—causing air pollution, ocean damage, and extreme weather. Under this approach, the companies creating and selling these fuels pay a fee based on how much pollution they generate. That money goes directly into fixing the environmental damage caused by those products.

How the Two Models Compare

Feature	The Gas Tax Model (Roads)	The Environmental Model (Planet)
Basic Idea	You use it, you pay for it	You pollute it, you clean it up
What’s Counted	Gallons of gas bought / Miles driven	Amount of fossil fuels produced or pollution created
The Problem Caused	Potholes, worn-out bridges, cracked roads	Smog, wild weather, environmental damage
Where the Money Goes	Repaving roads, fixing bridges, highway repairs	Environmental cleanup, flood protection, clean energy projects

Where Would the Money Actually Go?

Putting a usage fee on major polluters would fund real-world projects that keep communities safe:

• Protecting Coasts from Flooding: Building Sea walls, storm barriers, and raising low-lying roads so coastal towns don't get washed away by extreme weather and rising waters.

• Upgrading the Power Grid: Building stronger power lines, high-capacity battery storage, and clean energy setups so electricity stays reliable as we switch away from fossil fuels.

• Cleaning Up Abandoned Industrial Sites: Plugging old, abandoned oil wells, fixing leaking pipelines, and cleaning up toxic sites where the original companies walked away without fixing their mess.

• Expanding Public Transit: Investing in buses, trains, and electric vehicle charging stations so people have more ways to get around without adding more pollution.

• Keeping Water Safe: Restore wetlands, upgrade town drainage systems, and improve water filters so communities have clean, safe drinking water.

The Bottom Line

When we stop viewing "infrastructure" as just concrete and roads, and start including our natural environment, the solution becomes clear: the people and companies creating the wear and tear should help pay for the repair.

To learn more, go to: w4ej.org