As members of Congress continue to throw around ideas for a Carbon tax in an effort to curb CO2 emissions, we are so far being assured that the taxes will not generally be on individuals, but on the corporations creating the emissions. However, while this may be technically true, in all practicality this will result in higher costs for the end user. Gasoline prices will go up. Construction materials will cost more, so the cost of houses and cars will go up. The costs of these taxes will be filtered down to the consumer level one way or another. The carbon tax is yet another example of the legislators typical overreach into the economy and environment. Obviously CO2 emissions are helping to speed global warming (but it's still a natural cycle. We'll never be able to stop global warming. It happened numerous times in the past, followed by an Ice Age, followed by another warm cycle. It won't be permanent). But is the answer really to tax the companies using factories to produce cars and building materials, and the oil companies supplying our fuel? What about this idea: Lower taxes on companies that love to do R&D (that would be oil companies. If there was ever an industry that loved to pioneer new technology in natural resources, it would be the oil industry), and make it easier to expend resources on development of renewable energy. Exxon Mobil, for example, know that fossil fuels aren't going to last forever. Exxon is researching all kinds of power generators, from wind turbines to seafloor turbines. Why not make it easier to do that kind of work, which would make fuel less expensive, which would put more money in the pockets of consumers who would go out and spend it.