I love the economic policy behind this proposal.  I hope it gets enacted.  It's important for us, as individuals, to support businesses that provide us with our desired utility but also benefit the environment.  I came across a website, http://www.simplestop.net that stops your postal junk mail and benefits the environment.

"States bypass logjam at the federal level with their own cap-and-trade programs."  Sounds like good news but on closer inspection, probably an illusion.    

Sadly, cap-and-trade is decidedly a second-best policy that hasn't acheived any net reductions in the EU after five years of struggle.  A wide range of economists and the Congressional Budget Office conclude that a carbon tax would be at least FIVE times as cost effective as a fixed cap at reducing GHG emissions.  

Why? Because rising price signals distribute the cost of reductions across the economy and over time. Quantity controls (caps) create artificial scarcity and force costly short-term reductions.  Trading mostly enriches traders.)  

British Columbia leads the way with a revenue-neutral carbon tax.  BC "primed the pump" by distributing carbon tax dividends to citizens before the tax took effect.  Savvy and effective.  Canada's (centrist) Liberal Party leader Stephan Dion is championing a national "green shift" whose key element is a revenue-neutral carbon tax.  

But here in the US, the subject of carbon taxes remains decidedly on the political sideline (even while it's mainstream economics).  

The Carbon Tax Center (http://www.carbontax.org) is dedicated to informing citizens and policy-makers about the advantages of a carbon tax.  

The dire consequences of global warming demand the most effective policy.  Let's get our best player -- carbon taxes -- off the sideline and onto the political playing field.