This idea I've been having

I've been having this idea about gas prices. They need to be higher, much higher, to encourage people to find ways to use less gas. But in America, everything from our urban environments to the lack of good public transportation in many places to the size and locations of our grocery stores are dictated by the reality of decades of cheap gasoline, so it would be ruinous to simply implement a tax on the scale of the one here in Germany, where gas currently costs about $6.22 a gallon.

My idea is this: Every taxpayer gets a government-issue credit card that gas stations are obliged to accept. At the end of every month, a bit of the gas tax money is taken off the top to pay for the system's administration, and the rest redistributed equally to the gas cards. When you file your taxes at the end of the year, any balance on your card counts as a refundable tax credit. In this system, anyone using less gas than the average person gets a subsidy, and anyone who uses more pays a fee. This would have the desired effect of creating a large incentive to use less gasoline without being ruinous to people who use only an average amount.

Thoughts?