why can't we just tax the gas at the pump? this is, at least, what I'm used to in Europe.
We do. But it’s a super regressive tax. Lots of very poor people depend on a bad MPG car to get to work and live.
If you subsidize polluting life-styles, you'll get pollution.
You think the rich suffer from pollution and car dependency? It's not at all clear that taxing gas will lead to worse outcomes for the poor. It's entirely clear that subsidizing pollution from the poor will lead to worse outcomes for the planet.
What isn’t clear about the fact that increasing commuting costs for those living paycheck to paycheck leads to a worse outcome?
that's a different problem. US cities used to have good publhc transport, but the urvanization policies since 50s is car-centric. plus, because of the American cars having huge engines they have bad MPG. The current situation US is in is nothing to do with the tax regime.