Taxing carbon to combat warming: Frisco board becomes first in the nation

While everyone's been focused on how rising gas prices are messing up the economy, a San Francisco air-pollution board quietly made global warming history this week.

Jumping out ahead of federal and state regulators, it became the first government agency in the nation to impose fees on businesses that pump some of the highest levels of carbon dioxide into the air each year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

"The 15-1 vote by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District sets the stage for 2,500 companies and agencies - from supermarkets to gas stations to power plants - to pay 4.4 cents for every metric ton of carbon dioxide they expel, beginning July 1," the Chronicle reports "The top 10 companies combined would pay more than $820,000. The fee for a large share of businesses would be less than $1."

"Someone needs to take a first step, and we're running out of time, when you look at the bay rising 3 feet by 2100 and the devastating effects of climate change," said San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill, the air district chairman. "This is a more expensive proposition if we do nothing."

 

[AP Photo]

--Craig Pittman