... we were to get rid of all income taxes, and replace them with "resource" taxes---taxes on using natural resources such as water and trees, and of course expelled carbon, provided it were realistic to measure consumption. Would more people of the conversative ilk be receptive to such a shift?

After all, isn't the real bane of a conversative's existence the tax that discourages our capitalist proclivities?

The US companies have seen what the European countries got away with the EU ETS and they want to do the same 'cap and trade' system.  Never mind cap and trade, where you try to monitor companies emitting fossil fuels - why not simplify the system and go after those producing or importing fossil fuels?  That is what CAP AND SHARE advocates:

www dot cap and share dot com

I think grist should contact Richard Douthwaite, the main economist behind cap and share and the founder of Feasta (Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability in Ireland) and let him speak on here, as opposed to covering carbon taxes and cap and trade over and over and over, when they both have serious problems.  

Why not look at a new solution?  This is an extension and democratisation of Contraction and Convergence.  I think gristmillers would dig(g) it.