I am concerned about the chances of a national Carbon Tax passage in the next few years, and think that a commitment that a significant number of UUA members could make in the short term would be to fund a ‘voluntary’ carbon tax. If we were to assume that 10 families in each of the approx. 1000 UU congregations could commit to this, we would have 10,000 voluntary members. My family’s carbon footprint from auto fuel and home energy usage is about 16 metric tons a year, and if this were taxed at $20/ton, our share would be about $320 per year. Multiplied by 10,000 families, this voluntary tax would amount to $3,200,000 per year that could be used for clean energy initiatives to be determined, such as clean energy projects for the poor (funding solar panels for Habitat Homes is an example), international clean energy studies (helping to fund RMI’s Reinventing Fire in China is an example), and any number of other very important initiatives. I suggest that this be administered either through the UUSC, the UUA, or jointly.