An auctioned cap or a tax with 100 % return of the proceeds to the people is the most practical policy for several reasons: (a) it would begin real carbon reductions quickly; (b) it would be an honest and transparent way of treating the American people; (c) it would attract the broadest attainable political coalition across party lines; (d) it would be administratively simple for both the
government and the private sector (with the tax or auctioned permits collected at the first point of sale or import of the carbon - containing fuel); (e) it would be a non-regressive way of introducing the carbon price into the economy; and (f) it would avoid a fiasco such as the special interest
feeding frenzy that surrounded the recently failed Boxer - Lieberman - Warner bill
in Congress.