Minnesota levies world's first carbon tariff…against North Dakota

The first carbon tax to reduce the greenhouse gases from imports comes not between two nations, but between two states. Minnesota has passed a measure to stop carbon at its border with North Dakota. To encourage the switch to clean renewable energy Minnesota plans to add a carbon fee of between $4 and $34 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions to the cost of coal-fired electricity, to begin in 2012, to discourage the use of coal power; the greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

If this seems a little weird, you should probably understand that Minnesota has been generally pushing for cleaner power within its borders (it’s no California, but it’s doing better on this than most states), but the utility companies that operate here have, over the past decades, sited a lot of coal power plants on the relatively cheap and open land of North Dakota. My guess would be that this is a way of extending policy to cover more of the energy used within the state, even though it happens to be produced elsewhere, while simultaneously spurring investment (theoretically in both Minnesota and North Dakota, as only coal-power electricity is affected) in renewable energy development.

BoingBoing