Voluntary Restraint in the Age of President Trump

As President Trump rolls back carbon mitigation regulations, how many consumers will respond by engaging in "voluntary restraint" such that they reduce their GHG emissions even if regulation does not force them to do so?   If the price of gasoline were high enough, most people would seek out fuel efficient vehicles.

But, when gas prices are low and if CAFE standards are weak, who seeks out the Prius and the other green vehicles?   You already know the answer; the answer is that liberal/environmentalists walk this walk.  I document this point in the following papers;

 Dora L. Costa & Matthew E. Kahn, 2013. "Energy Conservation “Nudges” And Environmentalist Ideology: Evidence From A Randomized Residential Electricity Field Experiment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 680-702, 06.

 Costa, Dora L. & Kahn, Matthew E., 2013. "Do liberal home owners consume less electricity? A test of the voluntary restraint hypothesis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 119(2), pages 210-212.

Kahn Matthew E & Vaughn Ryan K., 2009. "Green Market Geography: The Spatial Clustering of Hybrid Vehicles and LEED Registered Buildings," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(2), pages 1-24, March.

Kahn, Matthew E., 2007. "Do greens drive Hummers or hybrids? Environmental ideology as a determinant of consumer choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 129-145, September.

Since at least Pigou's time economists have said that we need to face a tax to internalize the social costs of our actions.  But, many liberals appear to "do the right thing" even without such a tax or by facing a smaller tax.  Matt Kotchen's JPE paper on "green goods" greatly influenced my thinking here on this topic.