True, and I'd like to see this corrected with carbon pricing ASAP. My point is simply that whether or not intermittent renewables can ever cost-effectively deliver baseload power is still an open question.

Why do you think those costs are less than the existing taxes, or greater than what anyone could pay? Talking about externalities means you have a rough idea of a number, which is not "infinity". What do you think it is?

>Most power plants we use today can't deliver baseload cost effectively if you add in the externalized costs of climate change.

Like it or not tacking on the cost of climate change to power generation is so far from current reality that adding that hypothetical constraint is meaningless. The people making these decisions have real tangible costs that matter right now that they will prioritize in their comparison.

I'm not so sure about this. I wouldn't be surprised to see European countries introducing carbon taxes soon.