Tragedy of the commons is precisely what I have used to argue that prices will go up because the resources are being depleted. In this case, oil/gas is being over harvested by the individual. However, other energy sources are relatively infinite. Oil/gas happens to be cheap right now, but in the future it will not be. As the price rises, there becomes a greater incentive to seek other sources.
> As the price rises, there becomes a greater incentive to seek other sources.
This is not a valid or reliable mechanism for correcting misaligned incentives. It may occur by happenstance but is not guaranteed to happen prior to significant damage to the commons. The point of a carbon tax is to create a direct mechanism that corrects incentives in the presence of market failure. I would suggest this article:
