Yes, ideally I want it to apply to all fuels. And while politically doing this would be pretty difficult, it would also politically be very difficult to stop certain lobbies from getting exemptions for their fuel, correctly arguing in some cases that it would ruin their way of life, not just alter where the money goes.

Indeed, it would take quite a bit of study to truly work out the effects of the economy on a general fuel tax, which would case major inflation by increasing the price of all energy intensive goods. Electricity would go up, home heating oil would go up, etc.

The latter creates a challenge because being neutral for the average American doesn't work there. People in the north would pay hugely, those in the nice climates would get a windfall. So this adds complexity as you must then adjust the credit based on the degree days where you live. But then people would try to game it, claiming to live in a cold place etc. The more you try to adjust it to avoid hardship for truck drivers or other professions or industries, or for different areas, the more corruption and gaming you will get.

Plus if you don't tax a fuel, it actually gets cheaper as demand for gasoline drops due to the tax on it! Which would indeed result in lots of diesel cars if diesel was not taxed.

One plan would be to phase it in slowly. Small tax, small credit the first year, then increase in future years. This gives people and industries time to adjust. The poor folks commuting into the rich towns would learn to vanpool. People would learn to pay more for their energy intensive products.

However, this would also drive the manufacture of energy intensive products overseas, if the manufacturing energy is more than the shipping energy. If you live in San Diego, it will be far cheaper to get it from Central America or Asia than New York.

So it may only be workable as just gasoline and diesel, with some credits for a very limited number of applications, to start.