Ecotax, short for Ecological taxation, can refer to:
A policy that introduces taxes intended to promote ecologically sustainable activities via economic incentives. Such a policy can complement or avert the need for regulatory approaches. Often, such a policy intends to maintain overall tax revenue by proportionately reducing other taxes, e.g. on human labor and renewable resources, in which case it is known as the green tax shift towards ecological taxation
Then I went to New Internationalist – with a great article on Green Taxes …………’Recent studies in Britain, the US and by the European Commission have found that replacing existing taxes on employment, incomes and profits (‘goods’) with taxes on energy use (‘bad’) can yield a threefold dividend: better overall national economic performance; higher levels of employment; and a cleaner environment. Their goal should be to shift the balance between the use of human resources (now under-employed) and natural resources (now over-employed………
Tax Policy Center– Article Taxes and the Environment: What green taxes does the United States impose?….The United States imposes virtually no green taxes. Most programs to reduce pollution rely on mandatory standards such as the Clean Air Act’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for stationary polluters and the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for automobiles. Among the few green taxes imposed in the United States at the federal level are the “gas guzzler” tax on new cars that exceed fuel efficiency standards, a tax on ozone-depleting substances, and miscellaneous taxes on fertilizers and pesticides used in agriculture………..
If Green Taxes Go Away- Say Goodbye to 116,000 jobs- Article by TreeHugger
Paying for the Environment with Green Taxes- NY Times
Green Tax availability 2009- Low Impact Living
Sierra Club- Green Taxes