Boneheaded is the reight word to use.
I don’t think the average consumer understands what a carbon tax would do to their electric bill. The current Co2 capture technology takes 30% of a coal plant’s output to run. That would be like putting a CO2 capture unit on the exhaust pipe of your car with it taking one of every three gallons of gas to run the unit. Wouldn’t sit too well. What the utilities need to do is tell the consumers if they don’t want their electic bills to go up by 50%-100% take it up with the government they elected. It’s not the fault of the utilities - they are trying to meet mandates set by the government the consumers elected. If I were a utility that’s what I would tell the consumer, and in no uncertain terms.
The problem is that utilities are regulated by government, subject to bureaucratic and legislative whim. They can be -- and are -- punished if they step out of line.
That's the reason why most businesses that have been impacted by this administration -- banks, autos, insurance companies, etc. -- are remaining silent, even compliant. They are fearful of facing retribution by a government they are, at least to some degree, beholden to.
If an enterprise is regulated, it can be tyrannized.