Here are some examples of how it could work. Tax pollution, and scrap business taxes . Lifelong exposure to these pollutants kills thousands of Wash ingtonians. Where pollution comes from a factory, we can tax every pound of pollution and toxic waste, piggy-backing on existing regulatory fees. But pollution that does not come from factories is a growing menace.
Pollution washing off farms is the biggest t hreat to water quality in our rivers.
Motor vehicles cause about half of urban air pollution, and the dirtiest fifth of vehicles spew four-fifths of the smog. To tame these non-factory polluters, we can tax agrochemical sales and, at our regular vehicle e mission inspections, tailpipe emissions. Tax resource consumption.and slash the sales tax . To encourage conservation and recycling - and to reflect the environmental impacts of resource extraction, governments could tax water, hydropower, timber and minerals. Taxing diversions of water from rivers would stem the enormous inefficiency in irrigation water use in the Northwest and safeguard life in our rivers, A tax of 6 cents per 1,000 gallons would drive a revolution in farm water conservation.