Comment Re:Don't worry (Score 1) 149
A carbon consumption/emission fee that is rebated per capita (i.e. everyone gets the same payment) does exactly what is needed -- it helps people who can limit their carbon emissions below the national average, and it makes those emitting more than their fair share pay for the privilege.
Politically, this would be difficult but not impossible, especially if you front-loaded and gave people the payments first. Now they have the cash to pay the higher prices, unless they're emitting a lot of carbon. You would need price adjustments at the borders, to prevent foreign corporations in carbon-intensive tasks (I think steel and cement production would fit this) from emitting carbon dioxide"for free", and then exporting their products to the US (or whatever countries adopt this) at a lower price. And then there's the mess of accurately assessing how much carbon a particular process or company released.