Are there any drawbacks to a hypothetical climate policy?- Carbon tax for reducing Income tax Disclaimer: I do not have a formal education in economics

Here is the idea of my hypothetical policy: graduated over a period, say about 10 years or longer, the income tax is phased out and a carbon tax is implemented, such that the revenue lost from the income tax is gained by the carbon tax.

Possible strengths:


Increased consumption
Increased incentive for the public to invest in renewable energy
Increasing the weight of the penalty of wasted fuel.


Possible weaknesses


Reduction of the tax base
Unequal tax burden on oil companies, and those that rely heavily on oil
The potential that the graduated increase in carbon tax and decrease in income tax will not be fulfilled (non-cooperation).


Are there any weaknesses, that I, in my limited economic understanding, have overlooked?
Prominent economist Greg Mankiw has been a prominent advocate of the kind of change you describe (he invites people to join "The Pigou Club", named for Arthur Pigou who first proposed these kinds of corrective taxes).

You can find a nice, non-technical summary of his arguments here. In particular, Makiw deals with some of the weaknesses you identify above and argues that they shouldn't be too much cause for concern.

Wikipedia has an article that lists other prominent economists who have jooined the Pigou Club by publicly advocating for a shift towards carbon or similar taxes (including links to many articles where the issue is disccused. It is here.