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In principle I agree with you that in general we should attempt to internalize externalities whenever possible. But, for example, burning coal kills thousands of Americans every year from fine particle pollution. Why not internalize coal costs right now? Shouldn't that be the priority?

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Definitely, and that has been proposed tons of times in the form of a carbon tax. Whether it will some day implemented or not depends on the voters.

Fine particle pollution is entirely different from CO2 emission and would not be included as part of any carbon tax I've seen.

But it would be incidentally reduced by a carbon tax since that would cause some coal plants to be shut down.

You're completely correct! In terms of impact, that should absolutely be the priority.

Some people prefer to incorporate difficulty, time costs, and resources required into their prioritization process rather than being purely impact-based. This may lead some of them to a different set of results.

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