The Carbon Credit Card

This whole "carbon credit" broo-ha-ha is starting to irritate me. The gist of the system that They seem to be proposing is that people who used to pollute a lot get credit for the pollution that they are not producing, and can sell that credit to other people so that they can pollute. I am going to have to file that right next to paying people not to grow corn. I mean, WTF?!? You were an asshole, but you get credit for being less of an asshole?

Here is my suggestion. Sam figures out how much C02 should be released in a given year. He then gives the credits to US! The credits can then be sold on the carbon market, and we get to keep the cash. So who is going to buy the carbon? Sure the power companies will have to buy a BUNCH of them, and they pass the costs on to their consumers, who are either us or people who sell us stuff. However, gasoline companies would have to buy credits for all the gas they sell. That price shows up at the pump. Farmers? They are gonna get seven kinds of screwed, unless they are no-till organic farmers. Food prices go up. Oh, and all that food that comes in from Mexico, Chile, and places further away? Pow! Strangely enough, even though all of the cash will be coming back to us, we will be paying it all back out. The big thing is, we will actually get to see the carbon cost of the things we buy. That would not suck.