Carbon tax is coming

Mystic Generating Station, in Everett, Mass. It burns oil and natural gas.

From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

‘Voters in Washington State have rejected a badly drafted “carbon tax’’ proposal for power plants and other polluters. The money from the levy would have gone to help pay for various air-quality and other environmental needs. Carbon taxes proposed for other jurisdictions would go to those sorts of initiatives as well as to other public projects or even be rebated to the public.

The idea, obviously, is to reduce the burning of fossil fuels by making them more expensive. A carbon tax is the most efficient --- and market-based way -- to reduce our lethal fossil-fuel dependence. I think that we’ll eventually see it in all developed nations, though that might require more weather disasters first. We’ll do the right thing after we’ve exhausted all other options.