On Wednesday the Bay Area Air Quality Management District board of directors voted 15–1 to charge companies 4.4 cents per ton of carbon emitted. Set to go into effect on July 1st for the nine Bay Area counties, the carbon tax will be the first of it’s kind in the country.
Proponents admit that such a modest fee probably won’t create huge inflows of cash for local governments or force emitters to make significant reduction in emissions, but it “sends the right message”.