Conservative critique of the carbon tax

This story contains two things:

1. Evidence that when it comes to climate and energy policy, mainstream Democratic politicians (+ John McCain) are more or less in consensus: yes on "the need to enhance energy efficiency, introduce a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases, and incentivize clean energy technology,” no to a carbon tax.
2. The worst argument against a carbon tax ever:
   

   “A tax won’t work,” said John Raidt, adviser to McCain. “It will just raise money for bureaucrats. There’s no telling where that money would go.”

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Classic conservatism. “The money will just drift off into The Government, and then god knows where.” Uh, dude? In the hypothetical, you’re the government. You can decide where the money goes. If you want to get it out of the hands of “bureaucrats,” i.e., you, then refund it to taxpayers. Just don’t go pretending that you have the power to tax but not the power to allocate revenue.