Patent ID: 8478603

Claim:
A method for monitoring greenhouse gas emission from a vehicle, said method comprising: a processor of a computer system monitoring the vehicle for greenhouse gas emission, said monitoring comprising identifying a running total of greenhouse gas emitted by the vehicle into an external environment that is external to the vehicle; said processor detecting satisfaction of a payment triggering condition that triggers collection of a required payment pertaining to the stored running total of greenhouse gas emitted, wherein the detected payment triggering condition comprises a payment system detection condition or an excess emission condition, wherein the payment system detection condition is a detection of a payment system configured to collect the required payment, and wherein the excess emission condition is that the stored running total of greenhouse gas emitted exceeds a specified gas measure threshold; responsive to said detecting satisfaction of the payment triggering condition, said processor computing the required payment as a function of the stored running total of greenhouse gas emitted that exceeds the specified gas emission measure threshold; and said processor of a computer system providing notice of the required payment to a party selected from the group consisting of an operator of the vehicle, an owner of the vehicle, a collecting party authorized to collect the required payment, a responsible party responsible for submitting the required payment to the collecting party, and combinations thereof.